furunculus

Latin

Etymology

From fūr (“a thief”) +‎ -unculus (diminutive nominal suffix). The use of the ending -unculus, which more often appeared in diminutives of n-stem nouns, may be influenced by analogy with the word latrunculus (“highwayman, robber”), a diminutive with a similar meaning. Alternatively (particularly in the sense "ferret"), could be from fūrō +‎ -culus, i.e. a diminutive formed on an n-stem base fūrō, an alternative form of fūr.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /fuːˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuːˈrʊŋkʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /fuˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuˈruŋkulus]

Noun

fūrunculus m (genitive fūrunculī); second declension

1. (literally) pilferer (petty thief)
2. (transferred sense)
   1. (pathology) pointed burning sore on the human body; boil, furuncle
   2. (botany) germ or knob on a vine, so called from its shape
   3. (zoology) refers to some mustelid animal (either a stoat or a ferret)

      Synonyms: fūrō, ictis, viverra, furectus, furettus

Inflection

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fūrunculus	fūrunculī
Genitive	fūrunculī	fūrunculōrum
Dative	fūrunculō	fūrunculīs
Accusative	fūrunculum	fūrunculōs
Ablative	fūrunculō	fūrunculīs
Vocative	fūruncule	fūrunculī

Descendants

All having the sense of 'sore, boil, abscess'.

• Italo-Romance:
  • Central Italian: frongolo, frungolo
  • Neapolitan: frungolo

    Tarantino: frunchiu

• North Italian:
  • Friulian: faroncli, farungli
  • >? Lombard: ferunqui
  • Piedmontese: frungi
  • Venetian: frungolo
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal:
    • Franco-Provençal: furonclo, furoncllo, feusonclle, fosonclo, fruncle, furuncle
  • Oïl:
    • Bourbonnais-Berrichon: frongle, fronc, fronque, froncle
    • Bourguignon: fronllhe, fairongh', feuronghi', frongle, froinlie
    • Franc-Comtois: fenonche
    • Lorrain: frombe
    • Middle French: feroncle, froncle
      • French: furoncle (latinized)
    • Norman: froncle, flon
    • Poitevin-Saintongeais: fronclle
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Gascon: horoncle, roncle

    Pyrenean: ronglo, rongo, ronco

  • Occitan: foroncle, foroncle
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: foruncho
    • Galician: furuncho, faruncho, feruncho, foroncho, foruncho
    • Portuguese: fruncho
• Vulgar Latin:
  • *fluruncus (see there for further descendants)
  • *furuncellus (diminutive)
    • Aromanian: furuntsel, furnitsel
    • Romanian: furnicel
• Borrowings:
  • → English: furuncle
  • → German: Furunkel
  • → Italian: foruncolo
    • → Emilian: furuncal
    • → Lombard: huroncul
    • → Romagnol: furuncual
  • → Polish: furunkuł
  • → Portuguese: furúnculo
  • → Romanian: furuncul
  • → Russian: фурункул (furunkul)
  • → Spanish: furúnculo, forúnculo
• Unsorted:
  • Portuguese: frunco

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 685: “il foruncolo” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[1] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1574: “furoncle” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fŭrŭnculus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 3: D–F, page 912

Further reading

• “furunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “furunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• furunculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.