The Spanish Suffix -UDO

Extract

In Classical Latin a small number of past participles had the ending -utus, e. g., argutus (arguo), locutus (loquor), secutus (sequor), solutus (solvo), volutus (volvo). In Vulgar Latin there is a proliferation of the -utus form, encroaching not only on -itus, but also on -atus. This verb form, so fecund in other parts of Romance territory, was common in Old Spanish but disappeared soon after the thirteenth century. The modern Spanish suffix -udo is an adjectival form which seems to spring rather from -utus forms which were already adjectives in Classical Latin, e.g., canutus, cornutus, nasutus. Meyer-Lubke says that -utus “jouit … en roman d'une vogue extraordinaire”, that “il indique très souvent … non la possession en général, mais une propriété extraordinaire, qui frappe: nasutus ne signifie pas simplement ‘pourvu d'un nez,’ mais ‘pourvu d'un grand nez’ etc.”