tomaculum

Etymology

 * probably derived in some way from Greek.

Lewis and Short refer it to Greek, in which case the ending is presumably the instrument noun suffix.

The manuscripts of Petronius and Juvenal show a variety of other spellings, including thumatula, tumatula and thymatula; C. Pellegrino, taking this family of spellings as the true reading, argued that the cited passages actually contain a diminutive derived from Greek (the plural of . However, it is difficult to get from the long vowel in Greek  to the short y̆/ŭ  or ŏ attested by the scansion in Latin verse and required by Romance descendants that go back to a form *tomacella.

Bodel also considers these spellings to represent the original form, but favors an alternative etymology proposed by Watkins from Greek. In Latin, would yield an adjective, which would form a diminutive in the neuter as  >. Compare >, possibly the source of Italian.

Per Bodel, the form in Varro Res Rusticae 2.4.10, sometimes cited as an alternative derivation from the same base, is unrelated and should be emended to Comacinae.

Noun

 * 1)  sausage