tumulus

From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“I swell”). Doublet of tombolo.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtjuːmjələs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtuːmjələs/

tumulus (plural tumuli)

1. (archaeology) A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.

   • 1898, Ernest Rhys, “The Lament for Urien from the Herbest”, in Welsh Ballads:

     The delicate white body will be covered to-day,
     The tumulus be reared, the green sod give way:
     And there, oh Cynvarch, thy son they will lay.

   • 2004, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 14:

     The tumulus is one of mankind's oldest burial monuments, dating back to 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C. […] Examples of tumuli can be seen peppering the landscape all over Western Europe.

• See burial mound § Synonyms

• Tumulus culture on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.mu.lus/, [ˈt̪ʊmʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.mu.lus/, [ˈt̪uːmulus]

From tumeō (“to swell”) +‎ -ulus. Cognates include Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “swell”).

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

1. A heap of earth, mound, hill, knoll, hillock.
2. A barrow, grave, tumulus.

   Synonym: sepulcrum

Second-declension noun.

• tumolus

• tumulāmen
• tumulō
• tumulōsus

• “tumulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tumulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tumulus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • on the edge of the hill: ad extremum tumulum
    
• “tumulus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “tumulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Ultimately from Arabic ثُمُن (ṯumun, “an eighth”). Compare Italian tomolo. Compare thuminus.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) A unit of measure used in Sicily and Malta.

• tumulus 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)

tumulus m (plural tumuluși)

1. Alternative form of tumul