sicula

sicula (plural siculae)

1. (zoology) The hard, triangular apex of a graptolite from which it grows.

• virgula (obsolete)

• prosicula

• aulics, caulis, clusia

• IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ku.la/
• Rhymes: -ikula
• Hyphenation: sì‧cu‧la

sicula f

1. feminine singular of siculo

• ulisca

From sīca (“dagger”) + -ula (diminutive suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsiː.kʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsiː.ku.la]

sīcula f (genitive sīculae); first declension

1. (hapax legomenon) diminutive of sīca (“dagger”) (used figuratively of the penis)
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, carmina 67.21, (Elegiac couplets):

     'Primum igitur, virgo quod fertur tradita nobis,
     falsumst. non illam vir prior attigerat,
     la͞nguĭdĭo͞r tĕnĕrā cu͞i pe͞ndēns sīcŭlă bētā
     nu͞mqua͞m sē mĕdĭa͞m su͞stŭlĭt a͞d tŭnĭca͞m

     First of all, what’s said, that she arrived to us a virgin, is false. The former man had not touched her; his little dagger, hanging limper than a soft beet, never lifted itself up to the middle of his tunic

Compare the occasional figurative sexual use of other nouns denoting weapons such as machaera.^[1] Since the word sīcula only appears in this passage in Classical Latin, it's unclear to what extent its sexual sense was an established metaphor versus a situational euphemism.

First-declension noun.

sicula

1. inflection of siculus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

siculā

1. ablative feminine singular of siculus

• “sicula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sicula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "sicula", 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)
• “sicula”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.