Putto

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpʊtəʊ/

Definitions

1. A cherubic figure typically illustrated as a plump child, often used to signify innocence in various artistic contexts
2. This term refers to a youthful and chubby male representation found in art, symbolizing purity and divine grace
3. A depiction of a chubby childlike figure commonly found in art that embodies innocence and is often associated with divinity

Etymology: The figure's name is a loan from Italian, where "putto" meant "boy" or "cupid" before it came to mean the chubby, often winged infant of Renaissance painting and sculpture. Its ancestry runs back to Latin "putus," a word for a boy, which was a variant of "pūsus," meaning a little boy. Behind that lies "puer," the common Latin word for boy or child, and, further back, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "few" or "little," which hints at the idea of smallness that the word carried from the start. The plural "putti" is borrowed directly from the Italian plural, so English speakers who use it are keeping the Italian ending rather than adding an English "s." This is why art historians refer to a group of these figures as putti, while a single figure is a putto.