-culus

-culus

1. Alternative form of -cule (diminutive suffix).

In 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.

• -clus

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.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kʊ.ɫʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ku.lus]
• Stressed on the antepenult, as in masculus [ˈmas.kʊ.ɫʊs].

-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.

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] 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:

• -icul- with short /i/ occurs in diminutives of some third-declension nouns and adjectives 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 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 pronunciations ending in -īcul- (syncopated to -īcl-) came to be popular for certain diminutives, including some from nouns that did not end in -is in Classical Latin, such as falcīcula from falx. The distinct outcomes of -īcl- and -icl- in Romance 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).

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”)

First/second-declension adjective.

• -unculus (rebracketing)
• -usculus (rebracketing)

From -ĭculus (accusative -ĭculum):

• Portuguese: -elho
• Spanish: -ejo

From -īculus (accusative -īculum):

• Spanish: -ijo