פִּטְמָה (pitma) — nipple; also the tip (pitam) of an etrog

Etymology

The root פ.ט.מ is not native to Hebrew — the Sages adopted it from Aramaic, where it meant to fatten or to feed. In Mishnaic Hebrew the root gave the verb פִּטֵּם (to fatten an animal for slaughter) and the noun פִּטְמָה or פֻּטְמָה (manuscript traditions differ on the voweling), meaning a fleshy protuberance — essentially a "fattened" or thickened appendage at the tip of a fruit or vegetable. Mishnaic texts mention the pitma of onions, garlic (Uktzin 1:2), pomegranates (Uktzin 2:3), apples, watermelons, and cucumbers (Yerushalmi Kilayim). The most legally significant pitma was that of the etrog, since Talmudic law ruled that a missing or damaged etrog pitma often disqualifies the fruit for use on Sukkot: "If its pitma was removed, it was peeled, cracked, pierced, or diminished in any amount — it is invalid" (Mishnah Sukkah 3:6).

The extension of the word to the anatomical nipple happened through a passage in the Mishnah (Niddah 5:7–8) in which the Sages compared stages of a girl's maturation to the three stages of a fig: unripe (pagah), half-ripe (baḥal), and ripe (tsamal). The question of how to identify the stage of tsamal (sexual maturity) prompted several proposals, one by Ben Azzai: "when the petomot darken." Since the Sages were following the metaphor of the fruit, Ben Azzai's petomot was understood as referring to the nipples by analogy with the protruding tip of a fig. The commentary of the Geonim (end of the first millennium) explicitly glosses pitma as "the top of a breast," citing Ben Azzai, and Nathan of Rome's Ha'arukh (twelfth century) confirms this secondary anatomical meaning.

In the modern period, the anatomical sense became primary. Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz of Krakow used the phrase pitmat ha-dad (the nipple of the breast) in his influential encyclopedic work Sefer HaBrit (1797). This phrase appeared in a series of popular nineteenth-century Hebrew medical books. As usage of pitmat ha-dad grew, rabbis became uncomfortable discussing etrog pitma with the same vocabulary, and began to use the shortened pittam for the fruit tip. Mendele Mokher Sefarim, meanwhile, shortened pitmat ha-dad to just petimah in his 1862 work Toledot HaTeva. In the early period of spoken Hebrew in Palestine, several pronunciations competed: pitmomet, petimah, and pitma. The last prevailed and is the standard form today.

Key Quotes

"ניטלה פטמתו, נקלף, נסדק, ניקב וחסר כל שהוא, פסול" — משנה סוכה ג', ו'

"משתשחיר הפטומת" — בן עזאי, משנה נדה ה', ז'

Timeline

• Mishnaic period: פִּטְמָה used for the protruding tip of fruits, particularly the etrog
• End of first millennium CE: Geonic commentary explicitly applies pitma to the nipple, citing Ben Azzai
• 12th century: Nathan of Rome's Ha'arukh confirms the anatomical secondary meaning
• 1797: Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz uses pitmat ha-dad (nipple of the breast) in Sefer HaBrit
• 1847–1883: The phrase appears in a series of popular Hebrew medical books
• 1862: Mendele Mokher Sefarim shortens the phrase to petimah in Toledot HaTeva
• Early 20th century: Multiple competing pronunciations; pitma eventually prevails
• Modern Hebrew: פִּטְמָה = anatomical nipple; פִּטָּם = fruit tip of the etrog (differentiated spellings)

Related Words

• פִּטֵּם — to fatten (an animal); derived from the same Aramaic root
• פִּטּוּם — fattening; also used in compound pitum ha-ketoret (the Temple incense formula)
• דַּד — breast (biblical; possibly meant specifically "breast" rather than "nipple")
• זִיז — protrusion (Isaiah 66:11; possibly an archaic word for nipple)