catulus

Latin catulus (literally “puppy”)

catulus (plural catuli)

1. (botany, obsolete) A catkin.

From Proto-Italic *katelos (“cub”), with parallel in Umbrian 𐌊𐌀𐌕𐌄𐌋 (katel, “a sacrificial animal”, nom. sg.). Despite IE cognates such as Old Irish cadla (“goat”), Middle High German hatele (“goat”), Old Norse haðna (“young goat”), Serbo-Croatian kot (“(time of) having young, litter, breed”), dial. Polish kót (“place where forest animals young”), Russian око́т (okót, “lambing time, litter”), De Vaan (2008) doubts a Proto-Indo-European origin.

Sense 3 is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek σκύλαξ (skúlax).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈka.tʊ.ɫʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.tu.lus]

catulus m (genitive catulī, feminine catula); second declension

1. whelp
2. young dog, puppy, young wolf
4. iron fetter

Second-declension noun.

Most via Vulgar Latin *cattulus.

• Asturian: cachorru
• Corsican: ghjacaru
• Spanish: cacho, ⇒ cachorro
• Italian: cacchio, cucciolo
• Portuguese: cachorro
• Sardinian: giagaru

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• Walde, Alois; Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938), “catulus”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume I, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 183
• “catulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “catulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "catulus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “catulus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “catulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “catulus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray