puttyyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
putty: [17] Etymologically, putty is something that comes from a pot. It was borrowed from French potée ‘contents of a pot’, a derivative of pot ‘pot’. By the time English acquired it, it had come to be applied to a powder made from heated tin, used by jewellers for polishing, and for a cement made from lime and water, used as a top coating on plaster – both substances made in pots. The latter led on in English in the 18th century to the now familiar application to the window-pane sealant.
=> pot
putty (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1630s, "type of plasterer's cement," from French potée "polishing powder" (12c.), originally "pot-full, contents of a pot," from Old French pot "container" (see pot (n.1)). Meaning "soft mixture for sealing window panes" first recorded 1706. Figurative use in reference to one easily influenced is from 1924. Putty knife attested from 1834.
putty (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1734, from putty (n.). Related: Puttied; puttying.