-unculus

Latin Etymology Uncommon variant of la -culus. The great majority of diminutives that end in the letters la -unculus were not formed using this suffix; rather, they were formed by adding the diminutive suffix la -culus to the stems of third-declension nouns with nominative singular forms ending in la -ō and oblique stems ending in la -in- or la -ōn- (such as la homunculus (from la homō, la homin- + la -culus) and la sermunculus (from la sermō, la sermōn- + la -culus)). In these, the ending la -unculus results from alteration of the vowel before the stem-final la n to la u due to either regular phonetic sound change (in the case of original la *ōn or la *on) or analogy. la of la -culus in the above class of words may be the source of the words where la -unculus appears to be used as an independent suffix; alternatively, some words that appear synchronically to have this suffix may have actually been formed originally on an unattested n-stem base (such as la avunculus). Pronunciation unculus Suffix -unculus Suffix forming diminutive forms of nouns, ultimately an extended form of la -ulus. la avus grandfather → la avunculus uncle la rāna frog → la rānunculus tadpole Declension -unculus Derived terms la References 1 -unculus 2090/3 la diminutive suffixes