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A comment on An 80-Year-Old Prank Revealed, Hiding in the Periodic Table. Parent comment

Re:An 80-Year-Old Prank Revealed, Hiding in the Periodic Table by nograpes on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @03:00PM (#10629267)
In English, we have several similar words that are derived from this French meaning (putrid is an example). Both words are related to Latin "putere" meaning "to stink". The ultimate root of these words is the Proto-Indo-European root word *pu- "to rot, stink" [1].

It is not clear if the current meaning of the term pee-yoo is derived from this Indo-European root. The first Oxford English Dictionary entry is in 1604, where it shows up with several different spellings: pue, peuh, peugh, pyoo, and pew [2]. The "stretching" of the word into two syllables must have happened sometime later.

[1] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=putrid

[2] http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/08/on-the-scent.html

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Re:An 80-Year-Old Prank Revealed, Hiding in the Periodic Table by eveningcoffee on Thursday November 26, 2015 @04:56AM (#10632215)
This is a great read about such topic: https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-english-so-weirdly-different-f...

It contains also part about English-French-Latin connection.

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