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

(Classical) IPA^(key): /muˈtuː.ni.um/, [mʊˈt̪uːniʊ̃ˑ]

(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /muˈtu.ni.um/, [muˈt̪uːnium]

Noun

mutūnium n (genitive mutūniī or mutūnī); second declension

(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).

Case	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

mutūniātus

References

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

“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

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[Weiss-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