出典:Wiktionary
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2026/05/02 19:04 UTC 版)
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.
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.
The ending -culus occurs originally and frequently in diminutives formed from third declension nouns with stems ending in /n/ or /s/. 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. 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:
The stem that the diminutive is built on is sometimes different from the stem found in the genitive singular of the base:
Examples:
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 | |
From -ĭculus (accusative -ĭculum):
From -īculus (accusative -īculum):
出典:『Wiktionary』 (2026/02/08 19:49 UTC 版)
From Proto-Italic *kūlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kuH-l-, zero-grade form of *(s)kewH- (“to cover”) without s-mobile.
Cognates include Old Irish cúl (“bottom”), Lithuanian kẽvalas (“skin, cover”). Related to cutis (“hide”).
cūlus m (genitive cūlī); second declension
Second-declension noun.