gubernaculum

• gubernaculum testis
• gubernaculum dentis

From Latin gubernāculum (“a helm, rudder”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɡjuː.bəˈnak.jʊl.əm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɡu.bɚˈnæk.jəl.əm/

gubernaculum (plural gubernacula)

1. A part or structure that serves as a guide:
   1. (embryology) Either of a pair of folds of peritoneum which connects the caudal end of the fetal testis with the bottom of the scrotum in a male fetus, and by failing to elongate in proportion to the rest of the fetus causes the descent of the testis into the scrotum; or an analogous cord of connective tissue attached to the ovary in a female fetus, which is the precursor of the round and ovarian ligaments.
   2. (dentistry) (more fully gubernaculum dentis) A cord or sheath of connective tissue that connects the sac of an unerupted permanent tooth with the surface of the gum.
   3. (zoology) The reproductive tract of an invertebrate, or part of it; especially the section containing the gonophores (in a hydrozoan); a sclerotized structure in the cloaca (in a nematode).
   4. (biology) (rare) A trailing flagellum in certain protists used for steering.

• “gubernaculum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “gubernaculum testis”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “gubernaculum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

From gubernō (“to steer”) +‎ -culum (suffix forming instrument nouns).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɡʊ.bɛrˈnaː.kʊ.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ɡu.berˈnaː.ku.lum]

gubernāculum n (genitive gubernāculī); second declension

1. the steering-oar, helm, rudder

   nāvis cum mālō, vēlīs et gubernāculō ― boat with a mast, sails and a rudder

2. management

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• → English: gubernaculum
• Catalan: governall
• Old French: governail
  • French: gouvernail
  • → Middle English: governail, governail, governaill, governaille, governayle, governaylle, governele, governeylle
    • English: governail (archaic)
    • Middle Scots: governall
• Old Occitan: governal
  • → Italian: governale
  • → Italian: governalle
  • → Portuguese: governalhe
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: governallo (semi-learned)
  • Galician: gobernallo
  • Portuguese: governalho
• → Old Spanish: governallo (semi-learned)
  • Spanish: governallo

• “gubernaculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “gubernaculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "gubernaculum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• gubernaculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to hold the reins of government: ad gubernacula (metaph. only in plur.) rei publicae sedere
    
  • to hold the reins of government: gubernacula rei publicae tractare
    
  • to steer: gubernaculum tractare
    
• “gubernaculum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “gubernaculum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Morwood, James. A Latin Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.