rotted

The word 'rotted' is the past tense and past participle form of the verb 'rot'. Its core, 'rot', traces back to the Old English verb 'rotian', meaning "to decay or become putrid", which itself has Proto-Germanic origins. This root is part of a wider Germanic family of words describing decay, such as the Old Norse 'rotinn' (rotten). The addition of the '-ed' suffix, a standard feature of English weak verbs, signals the action's completion, transforming the base concept of decay into a state of having decayed. The semantic journey is straightforward, maintaining the core idea of organic decomposition from its ancient roots to its modern application.

Structure: rot (decay) + ed (past tense/participle suffix) rot: From Middle English 'rot', from Old English 'rotian' (to rot, decay), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch 'rotten' and German 'rötten'. It functions as the core verb root meaning "to decay". ed: A suffix of Germanic origin used to form the past tense and past participle of regular verbs. In this word, it indicates the action of decay is completed.