Etymology

There are two plausible sources for the ME n. rot: (1) The relatively uncommon OE n. hrot, rot 'scum, mucus' is attested twice in medical texts (cp. OS hrot, OHG rhoz, roz). Even if this word is not the source of the ME, as MED notes, the homonym might have contributed to some of its meanings. (2a) The sense here, however, is certainly closer to the v. roten 'decay, decline, decompose' < OE gerotian 'to rot, putrefy'; similar wk. verbs derived on the zero grade of a PGmc st. class II v. *reutan- (on the evidence of the OIcel pp. rotinn 'rotten') are found across the NGmc and WGmc languages, cp. OFris rotia, MDu rotten, OS rotōn, OHG rozzēn, OIcel rotna. A native derivation on this v. is on the whole the most straightforward and persuasive etymon. (2b) Indeed some languages also attest a related n., which raises the additional possibility that the ME n. represents a loan, most plausibly from ON (cp. Far rot, Icel rot, Norw rot, Dan råd, Sw dial råt, rått), rather than an independent derivation from the v. in English. The late attestation of most of these forms, however, is problematic.

PGmc Ancestor

(1) *xrut-; (2) *rut-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

 
(ONP )

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

(2b) Far rot, Icel rot, Norw rot, Dan råd, Sw dial råt, rått

OE Cognate

(1) hrot, rot 'scum, mucus'; (2a) gerotian (v.) 'to rot, putrefy'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

DD1c

Attestation

(1) MED cites Yks. place-names 'Rottese', 'Rotse', 'Rotese' under rot, while EPNE cites 'Rotsea' which it identifies with OE hrot. (2) ME citations in MED and OED are mainly from N, E and Midlands texts.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Pe 26; Cl 1079; Erk 262

Peterson alone reads rote at Erk 262 as an instance of the v. continuing gerotian rather than the n.

Bibliography

MED rot (n.) , OED3 rot (n.1 and int.) , HTOED , (1) AEW hrot, EPNE hrot; (2a) MED rō̆ten (v.1) , OED3 rot (v.) , Orel *reutanan, (2b) de Vries rot, Mag. rot