See also: Putzen

German

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Etymology

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15th century, also in the form butzen. Origin unknown. Perhaps derived from Middle High German butze (lump, piece, stump), from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (whence also English butt), but there are several other theories.

Perhaps related to Latin puto in the sense of "clean".

Pronunciation

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Verb

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putzen (weak, third-person singular present putzt, past tense putzte, past participle geputzt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive or intransitive) to clean, especially by rubbing with something wet, to brush (one's teeth)
  2. (reflexive, of an animal) to groom oneself
  3. (reflexive, dated, of a person) to beautify oneself by washing, styling, and putting on fancy clothes

Conjugation

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Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Czech: pucovat
  • Danish: pudse
  • Dutch: poetsen
  • Hungarian: pucol
  • Norwegian Bokmål: pusse
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: pussa
  • Romanian: puțui
  • Polish: pucować
  • Polish: lampucera (a woman with so much make-up that she resembles a dirty Lampputzer; mutton dressed as lamb)
  • Swedish: putsa

Further reading

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  • putzen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • putzen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • putzen” in Duden online
  • putzen” in OpenThesaurus.de