-culus

See also: culus

Latin

Alternative forms

• -clus

Etymology

Rebracketing 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

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ku.lus/, [kʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ku.lus/, [kulus] (stressed on the antepenult (third-to-last syllable); e.g., māsculus /ˈmaːs.ku.lus/)

Suffix

-culus (feminine -cula, neuter -culum); first/second-declension suffix

1. Alternative form of -ulus
   1. added to a noun to form a diminutive of that noun.
   2. added to an adjective to form a diminutive of that adjective.

Usage notes

The ending -culus occurs originally and frequently in diminutives formed from third declension nouns with stems ending in /n/ or /s/. 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. 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/. The suffix may occur after other consonants with an intervening vowel:

• It is often preceded by the short vowel /i/ (-icul-). This occurs in diminutives of some third declension nouns and 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 derived in some cases from the final vowel of the stem (affected when possible by vowel reduction): many words that form diminutives in -icul- were originally i-stem forms (whether of the "pure" parisyllabic or neuter types, or the "mixed" type that resulted from contraction in the nominative singular). 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.
• It is preceded by the long vowel /iː/ (-īcul-) in a small number of irregularly formed diminutive nouns (such as canīcula from canis).
• It is preceded by the long vowel /eː/ (-ēcul-) in diminutives of fifth declension nouns (such as diēcula from diēs) and sometimes in diminutives of third declension nouns that have a nominative singular form ending in -ēs (such as nūbēcula from nūbēs).

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. (Synchronically, it may also be relevant that stem-final s was usually retained in the nominative singular form of neuter nouns.) 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

First/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

Latin terms suffixed with -culus

• -unculus (rebracketing)