puteus

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *pēu-, *pyu-, *pū- (“to cut, strike, hit”). Compare paveō, pudeō, repudium, paviō, and tripudium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpʊ.te.ʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpuː.t̪e.us]

Noun

puteus m (genitive puteī); second declension

1. well
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 3.327–330:

     Inde, ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora,
     Et cantu quaerulae rumpent arbusta cicadae,
     Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna jubebo
     currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam;
     […]

     • Translation by James B. Greenough, 1900

       When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,
       And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,
       Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,
       From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:
       […]

2. cistern

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	puteus	puteī
genitive	puteī	puteōrum
dative	puteō	puteīs
accusative	puteum	puteōs
ablative	puteō	puteīs
vocative	putee	puteī

Derived terms

• puteal
• Puteolī

Related terms

• puticulī

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: puts
  • Romanian: puț
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: pozzo
  • Sardinian: pussu, putzu
  • Sicilian: puzzu
• North Italian:
  • Friulian: poç
  • Romansch: puoz
  • Venetan: poso, poç
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Occitano-Romance:
    • Catalan: pou
    • Occitan: potz
  • Old French: puis
    • French: puits
    • Franc-Comtois: pouche
    • Norman: pyit
    • Walloon: pousse
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: pozu
  • Mirandese: poço
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: poço
    • Galician: pozo
    • Portuguese: poço
  • Old Spanish: poço
    • Spanish: pozo
• Borrowings:
  • → Albanian: pus
  • → Basque: putzu
  • → Welsh: pydew
  • → Proto-West Germanic: *puti (see there for further descendants)

References

• “puteus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “puteus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "puteus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “puteus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “puteus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Julius Pokorny (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3 vols, Bern, München: Francke Verlag