peculium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin peculium. See peculiar.

Noun

peculium (plural peculia)

1. (law, historical) The savings of a son or a slave, with the father's or master's consent; a little property or stock of one's own.
2. A special fund for private and personal uses.
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Still, however, he gained something, and it was the glory of his heart to carry it to Mr MacMorlan weekly, a slight peculium only subtracted, to supply his snuff-box and tobacco-pouch.

Further reading

• Alexander M[ansfield] Burrill (1851) “PECULIUM”, in A New Law Dictionary and Glossary: […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies, […], →OCLC, page 787, column 2: “A limited amount of money or property which a son or servant was allowed to have, separate from the accounts or stocks of his father or master; […]”
• “peculium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Etymology

From pecū, via an unattested adjective *pecūlis (“belonging to one's livestock/property, own”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /peˈkuː.li.um/, [pɛˈkuːlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /peˈku.li.um/, [peˈkuːlium]

Noun

pecūlium n (genitive pecūliī or pecūlī); second declension

1. private property (originally in the form of cattle, but later in the form of savings)

Usage notes

Often used in Ancient Rome to refer to the payment a teaching slave would occasionally collect from his students.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	pecūlium	pecūlia
genitive	pecūliī pecūlī1	pecūliōrum
dative	pecūliō	pecūliīs
accusative	pecūlium	pecūlia
ablative	pecūliō	pecūliīs
vocative	pecūlium	pecūlia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• pecūliāris
• pecūlor

Related terms

• pecus
• pecūnia

Descendants

• Aromanian: piculj, piculjiu
• Catalan: peculi
• French: pécule
• Italian: peculio
• Portuguese: pegulho, pecúlio
• Romanian: peculiu
• Sardinian: peculiu, pecuiu
• Spanish: peculio, pecunio, pegullo

References

• “peculium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “peculium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• peculium 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)
• peculium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “peculium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “peculium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin