-culus
English
editSuffix
edit-culus
- Alternative form of -cule (diminutive suffix).
Usage notes
editIn English this suffix exists only synchronically, as English words that end in -culus (listed below) are borrowed intact from Latin, rather than diachronically being an English root plus an English suffix.
Derived terms
editLatin
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editRebracketing of diminutive suffix -ulus on nouns ending in -cus, used freely.
However, Oscan zicolom (“day”, acc. sg.), from Proto-Italic *djēkelos, indicates that this suffix may be old and reconstructible to Proto-Italic *-kelos.
Pronunciation
edit- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [kʊ.ɫʊs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ku.lus]
- Stressed on the antepenult, as in masculus [ˈmas.kʊ.ɫʊs].
Suffix
edit-culus (feminine -cula, neuter -culum); first/second-declension suffix
- alternative form of -ulus
- added to a noun to form a diminutive of that noun.
- added to an adjective to form a diminutive of that adjective.
Usage notes
editThe ending -culus occurs originally and frequently in diminutives formed from third declension nouns with stems ending in /n/ or /s/.[1] It is used also to form diminutives of other third declension nouns (particularly i-stems and r-stems, sometimes others), and of fourth and fifth declension nouns. In the form -iculus, it is sometimes used instead of -ulus to form diminutives of other consonant stem nouns or of first or second declension nouns.[2] Rarely, -culus is attached directly after -r- of a second-declension noun with a stem in -ro- (e.g. puer, puerculus; compare the more regularly formed puellus and puerulus). As with other Latin diminutive suffixes, the gender of the diminutive regularly matches the gender of the base noun.
The unextended form -culus, -cula, -culum cannot directly follow a consonant other than /l/, /n/, /r/, or /s/. After other consonants, the suffix -cul- occurs only with an intervening vowel before it: this is usually short -i-, but can also be -ī-, -ē-, -u-, -ū-:
- -icul- with short /i/ occurs in diminutives of many third-declension nouns and adjectives, and also regularly in diminutives of fourth-declension nouns (where /i/ replaces the stem-final /u/ of the base noun, as in acicula, corniculum and geniculum from acus, cornū, genū). Etymologically, this /i/ is often derived from the stem-final vowel of the base word: many words that form diminutives in -icul- were originally i-stem forms (whether of the "pure" parisyllabic or neuter types, or the "mixed" imparisyllabic type). Likewise, the use of -icul- for diminutives of fourth declension nouns reflects the regular vowel reduction of the fourth-declension stem vowel /u/ to /i/ in a word-medial open syllable. However, -icul- can also be found in diminutives of third-declension words that are etymologically consonant-stem nouns (such as anaticula, from anas) and on the other hand, some i-stem nouns form diminutives in -cul- with no preceding -I- (such as animalculum, from animal). Synchronically, therefore, the /i/ can be interpreted as part of the suffix (making -iculus an allomorph of -culus) or as a linking vowel.
- -īcul- with long /iː/ occurs unpredictably as an alternative to -icul- in diminutives of third-declension nouns, mostly ones that end in -is in the nominative singular, such as canīcula, febrīcula, cutīcula, crātīcula from canis, febris, cutis, crātis. There are no definite criteria determining whether a noun ending in -is forms a diminutive in -īcul- or -icul-, but in poetry, the selection of these endings might be affected by metrical constraints, since a pronunciation such as cŭtĭcŭla, with three short syllables in a row, would not be allowed in dactylic verse. Priscian describes short -icul- as the regular pronunciation and explains Juvenal's use of cutīcula as a poetic license.[3] However, Romance descendants imply that the pronunciation -īcul- (syncopated to -īcl-) became popular in speech for certain diminutives, including some from nouns that did not end in -is in Classical Latin, such as falcīcula from falx. For example, distinct Romance outcomes of -īcl- and -icl- are seen in French lentille, Portuguese lentilha and Italian lenticchia from *lentīcla (a variant form of lenticula) versus French oreille, Portuguese orelha, Italian orecchia from Latin ōrĭcla (a variant form of auricula).
- -ēcul- with long /eː/ occurs in diminutives of fifth declension nouns (such as diēcula from diēs) and sometimes in diminutives of third declension nouns that end in -ēs in the nominative singular (such as nūbēcula from nūbēs).
- -ucul- with short /u/ occurs as a Late Latin variant of -icul-, perhaps originally in diminutives of fourth-declension nouns, such as genuculum (as an alternative to geniculum, from genū) but eventually attached also to third- and second-declension nouns. There is also some evidence in Romance languages for a variant -ūcul-, with long /uː/, as in acūcula.
The stem that the diminutive is built on is sometimes different from the stem found in the genitive singular of the base:
- Some diminutives end in -scul-. In this context, -s- often represents the original stem-final *s of a word that developed -r- in the oblique stem due to the sound change of rhotacism. (Original stem-final s was usually retained in the nominative singular form of neuter nouns, but was analogically replaced by -r in the nominative singular of masculine nouns such as rūmor m; nevertheless, the diminutive rūmusculus is formed as if from the original oblique stem ending in *-os-.) From these, the frequent ending -usculus was occasionally extended by analogy to form diminutives of nouns that were not etymologically s-stems; thus, the r-stem nouns marmor (genitive marmoris) and iecur (genitive iecinoris or iecoris) have diminutives marmusculum and iecusculum, the o-stem noun rāmus (genitive rāmī) has a diminutive rāmusculus, and the ā-stem noun herba (genitive herbae) has a diminutive herbuscula.
- N-stem nouns (most of which have nominatives ending in -ō and oblique stems ending in -ōn- or -in-) form diminutives in -un-cul- because of regular sound changes that turned ō or o into u before the cluster /nk/. After -uncul- developed in the diminutives of stems where /n/ was originally preceded by ō or o, this vocalism was extended by analogy to diminutives from n-stem nouns that originally had other vowels before the stem-final /n/ (such as pecten, pectinis, diminutive pectunculus). Occasionally, the ending -unculus was extended to form diminutives of nouns that were not n-stems.
Examples:
- ōs, ōris n (“mouth”) + -culus → ōsculum n (“little mouth”)
- lepus, leporis m (“hare”) + -culus → lepusculus m (“young hare, leveret”)
- arbor, arboris f (“tree”) + -culus → arbuscula f (“shrub”)
- uxor, uxōris f (“wife”) + -culus → uxorcula f (“little wife”)
- sermō, sermōnis m (“talk, rumor”) + -culus → sermunculus m (“rumor; small talk”)
- carō, carnis f (“flesh”) + -culus → caruncula f (“little bit of flesh”)
- clāvis, clāvis f (“key”) + -culus → clāvicula f (“little key”)
Declension
editFirst/second-declension adjective.
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| nominative | -culus | -cula | -culum | -culī | -culae | -cula | |
| genitive | -culī | -culae | -culī | -culōrum | -culārum | -culōrum | |
| dative | -culō | -culae | -culō | -culīs | |||
| accusative | -culum | -culam | -culum | -culōs | -culās | -cula | |
| ablative | -culō | -culā | -culō | -culīs | |||
| vocative | -cule | -cula | -culum | -culī | -culae | -cula | |
Derived terms
editDescendants
editFrom -ĭculus (accusative -ĭculum):
From -īculus (accusative -īculum):
- Spanish: -ijo
References
edit- ^ Derivation of Adjectives: Nominal Adjectives in Meagan Ayer, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014.
- ^ "The Formation of Latin Diminutives of Nouns and Adjectives," Ian Andreas Miller, ResearchGate, Jan 2012
- ^ Priscian (c. 500 AD), Martin Hertz, editor, Grammatici Latini: Libros I - XII continens, Volumes 1-2, published 1855, page 106:
- in "is" vero vel in "e" desinentia omnia vel in "ns" monosyllaba vel in "rs" dativo corripientia i assumunt supra dictas syllabas et faciunt diminutivum, ut ignis igniculus, testis testiculus, navis navicula, cutis cuticula, avis avicula, clavis clavicula, rete reticulum, fons fonticulus, mons monticulus, pons ponticulus, lens lenticula, pars particula, dulcis dulciculus et dulcicula dulciculum, securis securicula. [...] Et cum omnia huiuscemodi diminutiva tam paenultimam quam antepaenultimam corripiunt, "cuticula" i antepaenultimam producit. Iuvenalis: "combibet aestivum contracta cuticula solem", quod eum facere metri necessitas compulit: quattuor enim breves habens dictio in heroico poni aliter non poterat
Categories:
- English lemmas
- English suffixes
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin rebracketings
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin suffixes
- Latin adjective-forming suffixes
- Latin first and second declension suffixes
- Latin diminutive suffixes