furunculus

Forms

fūrunculus m (genitive fūrunculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin fūr + -unculus, a diminutive of the word for “thief”.^[2][1] Wiktionary notes that the ending -unculus, usual with n-stems, may have come from latrunculus “robber”.^[1]

Georges kept the word for a boil apart, suggesting a link with furvus “dark”.^[3] Ancient grammarians explained the boil as ⟨fervunculus⟩, named for its heat (fervor).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's speech against Piso, meaning a petty thief: a man who was once a pilferer and is now a robber.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

By a transfer the OLD and L&S keep under the same word, it named a boil in the medical writer Celsus and in Pliny the Elder,^[2][6] and, in Columella and Pliny, a knob left on a vine after pruning.^[2]

The thief sense lasted into Medieval Latin,^[7] and Anglo-Saxon glossaries use the word for a ferret or marten.^[8][7] The medical sense is the source of English furuncle.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a petty thief.^[2][10]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a boil.^[2][10]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a knob on a vine.^[2][10]
• 1670s – English borrows it as furuncle.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A petty thief, pilferer.^[2][6]
2. A boil, furuncle.^[2][6]
3. A knob left on a vine after pruning.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A ferret.^[7][8]

Usage notes

Georges and Gaffiot give the thief and the boil as two words,^[3][11] while the OLD treats them as one.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.