rumusculus
Latin
Etymology
From rūmor (“gossip; rumor”) + -culus (diminutive-forming suffix). (Like other abstract nouns ending in the suffix -or m, the word rūmor originally had a nominative form ending in *-ōs and an oblique stem ending in *-os-: the form rūmusculus would be regular if built on the original oblique stem. Alternatively, the ending -usculus may have been taken by analogy from older diminutives such as arbuscula (“a small tree”) (from arbor), meliusculus (“a little better”) (from melior, melius, meliōr-), or other diminutives of comparative words. The earliest attested use of rūmusculus is in Cicero, who probably used the innovative nominative form rūmor, and certainly used the innovative oblique stem rūmōr-.)
Noun
rūmusculus m (genitive rūmusculī); second declension (Ciceronianism)
- idle gossip
- 66 BCE, Cicero, Pro Cluentio 38.105:
- Tum etiam illi quinque qui, imperitorum hominum rumusculos aucupati, tum illum absolverunt, iam suam clementiam laudari magno opere nolebant.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- Tum etiam illi quinque qui, imperitorum hominum rumusculos aucupati, tum illum absolverunt, iam suam clementiam laudari magno opere nolebant.
- 59 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 2.5:
- Quid vero historiae de nobis ad annos DC praedicabunt? quas quidem ego multo magis vereor quam eorum hominum qui hodie vivunt rumusculos.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- Quid vero historiae de nobis ad annos DC praedicabunt? quas quidem ego multo magis vereor quam eorum hominum qui hodie vivunt rumusculos.
- 52 BCE – 51 BCE, Cicero, De legibus 3.35:
- Secuta biennio post Cassia est de populi iudiciis, a nobili homine lata L. Cassio, sed, pace familiae dixerim, dissidente a bonis atque omnis rumusculos populari ratione aucupante
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- Secuta biennio post Cassia est de populi iudiciis, a nobili homine lata L. Cassio, sed, pace familiae dixerim, dissidente a bonis atque omnis rumusculos populari ratione aucupante
Declension
Second-declension noun.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | rūmusculus | rūmusculī |
| genitive | rūmusculī | rūmusculōrum |
| dative | rūmusculō | rūmusculīs |
| accusative | rūmusculum | rūmusculōs |
| ablative | rūmusculō | rūmusculīs |
| vocative | rūmuscule | rūmusculī |
References
- “rūmuscŭlus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “rūmusculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “rūmusculus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- rumusculus in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016