Etymology

Traditionally derived from Proto-Baltic *put-n-a, a morphological veriant of *putā- (originally “young bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōw-, *pū- ‎(“small one, baby”). Another possibility is that the original stem was *pawt- “to father,” with Latvian pauts ‎(“testicle”) (dialectally also “egg”) as a direct reflex; from the zero grade form *put- > putns (perhaps with the suffix -ens); in this respect, cf. Sudovian paud ‎(“bird”). For these hypotheses, cognates include Lithuanian putýtis ‎(“chick”), paũkštis ‎(“bird”), Old Church Slavonic пътица ‎(pŭtica), Russian птица ‎(ptíca), Sanskrit पोतः ‎(pótaḥ, “young animal, offspring”), पुत्रः ‎(putráḥ, “son, child”), Ancient Greek πῶλος ‎(pôlos, “foal”), Latin puer ‎(“child, boy”). Neither hypothesis, however, completely explains the form of this word. A more recent suggestion is Proto-Indo-European *pet- *peth₂- ‎(“to jump, to fly, to fall”), from which Old Irish ēn ‎(“bird”) (< *petno-), Old High German fedara, German Feder ‎(“feather”) (< *pet-er-), Hittite pattar ‎(“wing”), Sanskrit पतति ‎(patati, “to fly, to fall”), Ancient Greek πέτομαι ‎(pétomai, “to fly”), πτερόν ‎(pterón, “wing”), Latin penna ‎(“feather”) (< *pet-na). From *pét-r-, *pet-n-és > *ptér-, *pten-és, where an epenthetic u would lead to *putne-, *puten- (cf. dialectal diminutive puteniņš with e), from which putns.^[1]