vitulus marinus

From vitulus + marīnus. Compare English sea calf and the use of other terrestrial animals' names to create ones of aquatic and semiaquatic animals in compounds with the adjective marīnus: porcus marīnus (“porpoise”, literally “sea pork”),

rāna marīna (“anglerfish”, literally “sea frog”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwɪ.tʊ.ɫʊs maˈriː.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈviː.tu.lus maˈriː.nus]

vitulus marīnus m (genitive vitulī marīnī); second declension

1. seal, sea calf

   Synonyms: vitulus, phōca, (Medieval Latin) canis marīnus

   • 121 CE, Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, volume Aug.90:

     Tonitrua et fulgura paulo infirmius expavescebat, ut semper et ubique pellem vituli marini circumferret pro remedio, […]

     He had so great a fear of thunder and lightnings that, wherever he be, he always packed the hide of a seal to cover himself with as relief, […]

Second-declension noun with a second-declension adjective.

• “vitulus marinus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.