Putrescere

Putrescere is a Latin verb meaning to rot, decay, or become putrid. It refers to the decomposition of organic material, typically through microbial action, and it can also be used metaphorically to describe moral, linguistic, or institutional decline. In classical texts it appears in descriptive or scientific contexts related to matter and life processes; in later Latin it occurs in medical and natural-philosophical writing.

Etymology and form: The verb is built from the root putr- meaning rotten and the -escere infinitive ending, indicating a third-conjugation -ere verb. The infinitive is putrescere, and the verb belongs to patterns typical of third-conjugation in Latin. As with many -ere verbs, forms vary by tense and subject, but the core sense remains decaying or becoming putrid. The present active forms include phrases such as “putrescit,” used to describe ongoing decay.

Usage and derivatives: Putrescere is primarily used to describe physical decay of matter—food, tissue, organic substances—and, by extension, to denote moral or figurative deterioration. Related Latin adjectives include putrescens (putrescent), from which English derivatives such as putrescent, putrefy, and putrefaction descend. In biological and medical Latin, the term appears in discussions of decay processes; in literary or rhetorical contexts, it can convey decline or corruption of things like language or institutions.

See also: putrescent, putrefaction, putrefy. English cognates and medical terms derived from the same root reflect the common Indo-European idea of decay and corruption.