furunculus

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.^[1] 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.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [fuːˈrʊŋ.kʊ.ɫʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [fuˈruŋ.ku.lus]

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

Second-declension noun.

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

• 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, volume 3: D–F, page 912

• “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.