cutis (Latin)

Where does "cutis" come from?

The Latin noun 'cutis', meaning living human skin, rind, or hide[1], descends from Proto-Italic '*kutis'[1]. This in turn traces back to Proto-Indo-European '*kuH-t-', which represents a zero-grade form of the root '*(s)kewH-' meaning 'to cover'[1]. Through these ancient ancestral steps, 'cutis' shares a deep linguistic connection with various terms across Indo-European languages, such as Ancient Greek 'σκύλος' meaning 'hide' and Old English 'hȳd' meaning 'hide'[1].

Open questions

• The Proto-Italic form and its derivation from Proto-Indo-European are linguistic reconstructions. [1]

Full etymology tree

• cutis (Latin), 'hide, leather'
  • inherited *kutis (Proto-Italic)
    • inherited *kuH-t- (Proto-Indo-European)
      • derived *(s)kewH- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cover, conceal, hide'

Ancestors

• *(s)kewH- (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• σκύλος (Ancient Greek)
• hide (English)
• Haut (German)
• Hoden (German)
• hyd (Old English)
• स्कुनाति (Sanskrit)
• cwd (Welsh)

Descendants and derived words

• cutaneus (Latin)
• cuticula (Latin)
• intercus (Latin)

Sources

1. cutis (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris