catulus

English

Etymology

Latin catulus (literally “puppy”)

Noun

catulus (plural catuli)

1. (botany, obsolete) A catkin.

Latin

Etymology

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, and implicitly assigns these words to a common substrate origin.

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

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

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	catulus	catulī
genitive	catulī	catulōrum
dative	catulō	catulīs
accusative	catulum	catulōs
ablative	catulō	catulīs
vocative	catule	catulī

Derived terms

• catellus
• catulaster
• catuliō

Descendants

Most via Vulgar Latin *cattulus.

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

Further reading

• 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