-crum

From Proto-Italic *-klom by long distance dissimilation of /l..l/ > /l...r/. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-tlom. Although the Proto-Indo-European suffix had a variant with *r (*-trom, the ancestor of Latin -trum), the /k/ in -crum indicates that it comes from *tlom, since Proto-Indo-European *t was regularly changed to *k in Italic before *l, but not before *r. Based on the form of Umbrian ehvelklu 'decretum', the dissimilation to /r/ that created the form -crum postdates Proto-Italic.^[1] Compare -āris, a dissimilated allomorph of -ālis.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [krũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [krum]

-crum n (genitive -crī); second declension

1. alternative form of -culum (used only when /l/ occurs earlier in the word)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• -clum
• -culum
• -trum