tumulus

Forms

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions also have a neuter tumulum.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin tumeō (“to swell”) + -ulus.^[2][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *tum-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *tum-eh₁- (“to be swelling”), cognate with Welsh tyfu (“to grow”), Sanskrit तुम्र (túmra-, “strong, thick”), Lithuanian tumė́ti (“to become thick”) and the first part of Old Norse þumalfingr (“thumb”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Pacuvius on; the OLD's first citation for a burial mound is Pacuvius, and for a hill Accius.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

A tumulus is a rounded hill or knoll, sometimes part of a range, and above all a mound raised over the dead, a grave.^[2] Caesar uses it of the heaps of booty the Gauls piled up in consecrated places, and Vitruvius of a swelling or bump on a surface.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “grave, mound, hillock”;^[4] in medieval Latin it is also a coffin or sarcophagus.^[5] English borrowed tumulus for an ancient burial mound in the early 15th century, and Italian made from it tombolo, a sand-bar joining an island to the mainland, which English took up in 1899.^[6]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of a burial mound.^[2][3][7]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a hill.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of mounds of booty.^[2][7]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as tumulus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rounded hill, knoll, hillock.^[2][1][4]
2. A burial mound, barrow, grave.^[2][1][4]
3. An artificial mound, a heap.^[2]
4. A swelling, bump (on a surface).^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A coffin, sarcophagus.^[5]

Word family

• tumulāmen
• tumulō
• tumulōsus

Related words

• tumeō
• tumēscō
• tumidus
• tumor
• tumultus
• English tumulus

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also had a tumulus that was a unit of measure in Sicily and Malta, ultimately from Arabic ثُمُن (ṯumun, “an eighth”); compare Italian tomolo.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de