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 (compare mamilla from mamma). The reason for the variation in the vowel in the second syllable is unclear. 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. === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [mʊˈtuː.ni.ũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [muˈtuː.ni.um] === Noun === mutūnium n (genitive mutūniī or mutūnī); second declension (Vulgar Latin) penis ==== Usage notes ==== The meaning in C.I.L 4.1939 is disputed by Milnor 2014, who argues that the punchline of the joke at "...penem tenes" would be weakened if "mutunió" in the preceding line was a vulgar term for the penis, and suggests it might here be a proper name, "on behalf of Mutunius". The first word of this inscription is damaged (thought to be deliberately erased) and its reading is uncertain. The spelling muttōnium has been attributed to Gaius Lucilius based on a Latin-Greek gloss where it is glossed as προβασκαντον λουκιος (probaskanton loukios) assumed to mean προβασκάνιον (probaskánion, “amulet”) Λουκιλιος (Loukilios); compare fascinum for the phenomenon of phallic-shaped amulets. ==== Declension ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). 1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age). ==== Derived terms ==== mutūniātus === References === === Further reading === “mūtōnium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “mūtōnium”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. “mutūnium” in volume 8, column 1731, line 16 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present “? mutinium” in volume 8, column 1722, line 7 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present