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) IPA^(key): /fuːˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuːˈrʊŋkʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /fuˈrun.ku.lus/, [fuˈruŋkulus]

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'.

• Italo-Romance:
  • Central Italian: frongolo, frungolo
  • Neapolitan: frungolo

    Tarantino: frunchiu

• North Italian:
  • Friulian: faroncli, farungli
  • >? Lombard: ferunqui
  • Piedmontese: frungi
  • Venetian: frungolo
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal:
    • Franco-Provençal: furonclo, furoncllo, feusonclle, fosonclo, fruncle, furuncle
  • Oïl:
    • Bourbonnais-Berrichon: frongle, fronc, fronque, froncle
    • Bourguignon: fronllhe, fairongh', feuronghi', frongle, froinlie
    • Franc-Comtois: fenonche
    • Lorrain: frombe
    • Middle French: feroncle, froncle
      • French: furoncle (latinized)
    • Norman: froncle, flon
    • Poitevin-Saintongeais: fronclle
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Gascon: horoncle, roncle

    Pyrenean: ronglo, rongo, ronco

  • Occitan: foroncle, foroncle
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: foruncho
    • Galician: furuncho, faruncho, feruncho, foroncho, foruncho
    • Portuguese: fruncho
• Vulgar Latin:
  • *fluruncus (see there for further descendants)
  • *furuncellus (diminutive)
    • Aromanian: furuntsel, furnitsel
    • Romanian: furnicel
• Borrowings:
  • → English: furuncle
  • → German: Furunkel
  • → Italian: foruncolo
    • → Emilian: furuncal
    • → Lombard: huroncul
    • → Romagnol: furuncual
  • → Polish: furunkuł
  • → Portuguese: furúnculo
  • → Romanian: furuncul
  • → Russian: фурункул (furunkul)
  • → Spanish: furúnculo, forúnculo
• Unsorted:
  • Portuguese: frunco

• 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 [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 1574: “furoncle” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fŭrŭnculus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 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.