-tum

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tum"

German

Alternative forms

-thum, -thumb (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German -tuom, from Old High German -tuom, from Proto-West Germanic *-dōm, from Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz (“-dom”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰóh₁mos (“thing put”).

Cognate with English -dom, Dutch -dom, Danish -dom, Swedish -dom. ^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /tuːm/, [tuːm]
Audio: (file)
Audio (Germany (Berlin)): (file)

Suffix

-tum n or (rare) m (strong, genitive -tums or (less common) -tumes, plural -tümer)

A suffix used to derive abstract nouns: -dom

Usage notes

Generally neuter. The masculine only lingers in a few isolated cases, most notably Irrtum and Reichtum.

Declension

Declension of -tum [neuter // masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das, der	-tum	die	-tümer
genitive	eines	des	-tums, -tumes¹	der	-tümer
dative	einem	dem	-tum, -tume^1,2	den	-tümern
accusative	ein, einen	das, den	-tum	die	-tümer

¹Less common.
²Now rare, see notes.

References

^ Kluge, Friedrich (1989), “-tum”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN

Latin

Etymology 1

Nominalization of -tum (neuter singular forms of -tus (forming possessive adjectives)); the process from adjective to noun can still be seen in arbustus (“planted with trees”) → arbustum (“a place planted with trees, orchard”). Later widely supplanted by collateral -ētum. salictum/salicētum might suggest that other derivatives have been leveled through -ētum.

Suffix

-tum n (genitive -tī); second declension

(horticulture) used to form nouns from certain plant or tree names to denote a place where the species grows or is made to grow; grove, thicket, woods; orchard, plantation, -yard, garden
‎cārex (“sedge”) + ‎-tum → ‎cārectum (“a sedge-bed”)

‎frutex (“a shrub”) + ‎-tum → ‎frutectum (“a shrubbery, thicket”)

Alternative forms

-ētum
-ctum

Derived terms

Latin terms suffixed with -tum

Suffix

-tum

inflection of -tus (forming participles and possessive adjectives):
1. masculine accusative singular
2. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular; often substantivized:
‎fūr + ‎-tum → ‎fūrtum

‎iubeō + ‎-tum → ‎iussum

Alternative forms

-sum (after t or d)

Etymology 2

See -tus (forming action nouns).

Suffix

-tum

suffix forming the accusative supine of verbs

Suffix

-tum

accusative singular of -tus

Luxembourgish

Alternative forms

-tem (still optionally in a few cases), -tom (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German -dūm, -dōm, West Central German variant of -tuom, from Proto-Germanic *-dōmaz. The modern -t- is generalized from position after voiceless consonants, likely reinforced by German -tum (but cf. similarly Dutch -te). The modern -u- must also be influenced by German. (While it could be native per se, the lack of an according plural *-timer makes this unlikely.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [tum], (after an unstressed syllable) [ˌtum]

Suffix

-tum m (plural -temer)

nominal suffix: -dom

[1] Kluge, Friedrich (1989), “-tum”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN

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