mutunium

Latin

Alternative forms

  • mutūnius
  • muthūnium
  • muttōnium
  • mutīnium

Etymology

Probably from mūtō (“penis”) +‎ -ium; compare pecūlium (used with a sexual sense in Plautus and Petronius). The derived adjective mutūniātus scans with a short first syllable; Weiss (1996) proposes that this is a case of a geminate being shortened after an unaccented vowel, as seen in sacellus for saccellus[1] (compare mamilla from mamma). It is not known why the vowel in the second syllable appears as ū rather than as ō.[2] (The spelling muttōnium is attested in Lucilius.) Weiss proposes the following origin for forms with ū in this family of words: initially, the root was combined with the suffix -īnus, forming an adjective mū̆tīnus. After becoming used as the name of a god, Mutunus Tutunus, the form Mū̆tīnus was altered to Mū̆tūnus under the influence of other deity names ending in -ūnus, such as Neptūnus and Portūnus, and then the ū in the second syllable of Mū̆tūnus served as the basis of ū in the second syllable of forms like mū̆tūnium and mutūniātus.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

mutūnium n (genitive mutūniī or mutūnī); second declension

  1. (vulgar) penis
    • c. 1st century CE, Carmina Priapea, (uncertain meter):
      Tūtēlam pōmārī, dīlĭgēns Prĭāpĕ, făcĭtō:
      rū̆brī̆cātō fūrĭbus mĭnārĕ mutinio.
      Careful Priapus, keep watch of the orchard:
      threaten thieves with red(-painted) penis.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

singular plural
nominative mutūnium mutūnia
genitive mutūniī
mutūnī1 		mutūniōrum
dative mutūniō mutūniīs
accusative mutūnium mutūnia
ablative mutūniō mutūniīs
vocative mutūnium mutūnia

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Weiss, Michael (1996) “Greek μυρίος 'countless', Hittite mūri- 'bunch (of fruit)'”, in Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, volume 109, number 2, page 208
  2. ^ Adams, J.N. (2007) The regional diversification of Latin, 200 BC-AD 600, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 76

Further reading

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