putrefaction

See also: putréfaction

English

Etymology

First attested between 1350 and 1400 from Middle English putrefaccioun, from Old French putrefaccïon, from Latin putrefactiō, from putrefactus, perfect passive participle of putrefaciō (“become rotten”).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌpjuːtɹəˈfækʃən/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

putrefaction (countable and uncountable, plural putrefactions)

  1. The act of causing to rot; the anaerobic splitting of proteins by bacteria and fungi with the formation of malodorous, incompletely oxidized products.
    • 2019, Helena Blavatsky, The Essential Works of Helena Blavatsky:
      Canton and Franklin regarded it as a purely electrical phenomenon, and Parrot attributed it to the conflagration of hydrogen-carbonide escaping from the earth in consequence of the putrefaction of vegetable substances, and considered the shooting stars as the initial cause of such conflagration.
  2. Rotten material.
  3. The state of being rotten.
    • 1961: Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council, p. 121 [1]
      The Nuoc-nhuts and Nuoc-mams made by the dissolution of fish meat to a certain degree of disintegration, are transparent solutions without appreciable sediment, with sui generis odor and flavor, sufficiently salted not to offer any sign of putrefaction.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ "Putrefaction" at Dictionary.com

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin putrefactiō.

Noun

putrefaction oblique singular, f (oblique plural putrefactions, nominative singular putrefaction, nominative plural putrefactions)

  1. (medicine) rot; rottenness
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