Etymograph

English

tubercle

Tubercle comes from Latin tūberculum ‘a small swelling, bump, or protuberance’, and goes back to tūber.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtūber‘hump, bump, swelling, protuberance’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtūberculum‘a small swelling, bump, or protuberance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1869tubercle

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtūber‘hump, bump, swelling, protuberance’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEtūberculum‘a small swelling, bump, or protuberance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1869tubercle

Earliest quotation: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “The four long white plumes which give the bird…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- ‘to swell’

butter, tomb, tumor, soma, tumour, tumultuous, tyrosine, trifle, tumult, madrasa, turgid, 43 more

through Proto-Italic *tūβos

tuff, tufa, 6 more

through Latin tūber ‘hump, bump, swelling, protuberance’

truffle, 9 more

Today it means

noun A round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth, especially those found on bones for the attachment of a muscle or ligament or small elevations on the surface of a tooth.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin tūber / tubercle

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