tumulus

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

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.

Synonyms

• See burial mound § Synonyms

Derived terms

• Tumulus culture on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Translations

mound of earth

• Bulgarian: гробна могила f (grobna mogila)
• Czech: mohyla (cs) f
• Danish: gravhøj (da) c
• Dutch: grafheuvel (nl) m
• Esperanto: tumulo
• Finnish: hautakumpu (fi)
• French: tumulus (fr) m
• Galician: mámoa (gl) f, medorra (gl) f, medoña (gl) f, medela f, borróa f, tombo (gl) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: κολώνη f (kolṓnē)

• Ido: tumulo (io)
• Ingrian: kalma, hautapeentara
• Irish: tuaim f, dumha m, tuama m
• Japanese: 墳丘墓 (ふんきゅうぼ, funkyūbo) (in general), 古墳 (ja) (こふん, kofun) (more specific to Japan)
• Latin: tumulāmen n, tumulus m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gravhaug m

  Nynorsk: gravhaug m

• Polish: kurhan (pl) m, kopiec (pl)
• Portuguese: túmulo (pt) m
• Romanian: tumul (ro) m
• Russian: курга́н (ru) m (kurgán)
• Serbo-Croatian: tumulus (sh) m
• Spanish: túmulo (es) m
• Turkish: tümülüs (tr)

Latin

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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

Noun

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

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

   Synonym: sepulcrum

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	tumulus	tumulī
genitive	tumulī	tumulōrum
dative	tumulō	tumulīs
accusative	tumulum	tumulōs
ablative	tumulō	tumulīs
vocative	tumule	tumulī

Alternative forms

• tumolus

Derived terms

• tumulāmen
• tumulō
• tumulōsus

Related terms

• tumefaciō
• tumentia
• tumeō
• tumēscō
• tumidē
• tumiditās
• tumidō
• tumidōsus
• tumidulus
• tumidus
• tumor
• tumōrōsus

 

Descendants

• Catalan: túmul
• English: tumulus
• French: tumulus
• Galician: tumbo
• Italian: tumulo, tombolo
  • → Catalan: tómbol
  • → English: tombolo
• Portuguese: túmulo
• Romanian: tumul
• Spanish: tolmo, túmulo

References

• “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^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • on the edge of the hill: ad extremum tumulum
    
• “tumulus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[2]
• “tumulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Etymology 2

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.)

Noun

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

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

References

• 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)

Romanian

Noun

tumulus m (plural tumuluși)

1. Alternative form of tumul

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	tumulus	tumulusul		tumuluși	tumulușii
genitive-dative	tumulus	tumulusului		tumuluși	tumulușilor
vocative	tumulusule			tumulușilor