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According to the Indo-European roots Index of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. www.bartleby.com/61/. [05/11/08], all these words, whole or just a part of them ultimately derive from the IE root “* PU-”, meaning “ to rot or decay”. According to Grimm´s Law 1 , voiceless plosives became voiceless fricatives, /p/ > /f/.
“FOUL” derives from OE word “*ful”, which means “unclean, rotten”. On the other hand, “DEFILE” derives from OE word “*fylan”, which means “to sully” and it must have been borrowed from the old French word “defouler”. The word “PUTRID” derives from the Classical Latin word “putere” which means “to be rotten”. Finally, the word “SUPPURATE” derives from Classical Latin verb “suppurare”, which means “to produce or leak pus”.
Other words containing the IE root “*PU-” are putrefy, purulent, pus… etc.
“FOUL” derives from OE word “*ful”, which means “unclean, rotten”. On the other hand, “DEFILE” derives from OE word “*fylan”, which means “to sully” and it must have been borrowed from the old French word “defouler”. The word “PUTRID” derives from the Classical Latin word “putere” which means “to be rotten”. Finally, the word “SUPPURATE” derives from Classical Latin verb “suppurare”, which means “to produce or leak pus”.
Other words containing the IE root “*PU-” are putrefy, purulent, pus… etc.
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