pituita

pituita

English

Etymology

From Latin pītuīta (“mucus, phlegm”). Doublet of pip.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɪˈtjuːɪtə/

Noun

pituita (uncountable)

1. (medicine, now only historical) Phlegm; mucus.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     , Book I (New York 2001 edition), p.148:

     Pituita, or phlegm, is a cold and moist humour, begotten of the colder part of the chylus […]

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Latin

Etymology

Unknown[1]. Has been related to *peyH- (“fat”) but not convincing.

Noun

pītuīta f (genitive pītuītae); first declension

1. mucus, phlegm
2. rheum, head cold

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pītuīta	pītuītae
Genitive	pītuītae	pītuītārum
Dative	pītuītae	pītuītīs
Accusative	pītuītam	pītuītās
Ablative	pītuītā	pītuītīs
Vocative	pītuīta	pītuītae

Descendants

• ⇒ Medieval Latin: pipita
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: pipita
  • North-Italian:
    • Friulian: pivida
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: puìda, pavìa, piuvida, puvida
    • Ligurian: péja
    • Lombard: puìda, puvida, piida, pivida
    • Piedmontese: pëvìa, puvìa, poìa, poìja, puìa
    • Romagnol: puvida, povida
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Galoli: pebida, pebide
    • Portuguese: pevide
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pippita
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • French: pépie
  • Occitano-Romance:
    • Catalan: pepida, pipida
    • Gascon: pepida, pepita
    • Occitan: pepida
• Borrowings:
  • → Middle Dutch: pippe, pip
    • Dutch: pip
    • → Middle English: pippe
      • English: pip
  • → Old High German: pfipfiz, pfiffiz, (Central German) pipz, *pippiz
    • Middle High German: phiphiz, pippis
      • Alemannic German: Pfiffi
      • German: Pips (obsolete Pfipfs)
  • → Middle Low German: pip

References

1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 468.

Further reading

• “pituita”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pituita”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pituita 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)
• pituita in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette