this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Now go further back. Where does the latin word nucula come from?

[–] Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

went further back lol

Latin: Nux - nut nuculus - diminutive of nut ("little nut")

Proto-Indo-European: kneu - nut

I can't find much on where the -culus suffix originated, which seams to be the the place we would want to look if trying to tie the pronunciation of nuclear to the earliest etymological root.

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

-ulus according to Wiktionary:
From Proto-Italic *-elos (whence Faliscan -𐌄𐌋𐌏𐌔 (-elos)), from Proto-Indo-European *-elós, thematized from Proto-Indo-European *-lós.[1] Cognate with Proto-Germanic *-ilaz and *-ulaz, whence no longer productive English -le (as in dimple and nozzle), Dutch -el, German -el.

So the PIE for little nut would be something like *knewelós

[–] harmbugler@piefed.social 7 points 10 months ago

I don’t think the nuclear engineer wants the furries to know about ‘little nut’

[–] Jerkface@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Stop, you're gonna make me nux!