-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/.^[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] 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)

References

1. 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.
2. "The Formation of Latin Diminutives of Nouns and Adjectives," Ian Andreas Miller, ResearchGate, Jan 2012