tumulus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tumulus (“hillock, heap of earth, mound”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a derivative, perhaps a diminutive, of the root of tumeō (“to swell”),^{[3][8][9][10]} from Proto-Indo-European *teue- (“to swell”).^[4] Klein compares tumor (“swelling, protuberance”).^[9] Etymonline refers the word to tomb, a link that rests on Watkins's suggestion for the Greek source of that word, which Beekes takes as probably Pre-Greek.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A burial mound: about 1425 in the Middle English Dictionary's first full quotation (cited as Spec.Sacer.), which glosses the Latin as swelling earth.^[11] Etymonline likewise gives the early 15th century,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 15th century.^[12] A Trevisa translation of before 1398 had already given tumulus as the Latin name for a down.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed close to its Latin sense.^[3][12] The OED (1686), Hoad, Dictionary.com and Collins begin their record only in the 17th century.^{[3][5][8][10]} Etymonline specifies that such a mound was especially raised over distinguished dead or those slain in battle.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives a small dome-shaped mound of lava.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – a burial mound.^[11][2] The OED's first quotation is of 1686, in R. Plot's natural history of Staffordshire.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ancient artificial mound over a grave; a barrow.^{[4][12][3][10]}
2. A small dome-shaped mound of lava.^[12]

Word family

• tumulous

Related words

• tumid
• tumor
• thumb
• thigh

Usage notes

The plural is tumuli.^[4][12][10] Collins gives it as another word for barrow, no longer in technical use in archaeology.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster