tumulus

From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“I swell”). Doublet of tombolo.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtjuːmjələs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtuːmjələs/

tumulus (plural tumuli)

1. (archaeology) A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.

   • 1898, Ernest Rhys, “The Lament for Urien from the Herbest”, in Welsh Ballads:

     The delicate white body will be covered to-day,
     The tumulus be reared, the green sod give way:
     And there, oh Cynvarch, thy son they will lay.

   • 2004, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 14:

     The tumulus is one of mankind's oldest burial monuments, dating back to 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C. […] Examples of tumuli can be seen peppering the landscape all over Western Europe.

• See burial mound § Synonyms

• Tumulus culture on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.mu.lus/, [ˈt̪ʊmʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.mu.lus/, [ˈt̪uːmulus]

From tumeō (“I swell”). Cognates include Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “swell”).

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

1. A heap of earth, mound, hill, knoll, hillock.
2. A barrow, grave, tumulus.

   Synonym: sepulcrum

Second-declension noun.

• tumolus

• tumulāmen
• tumulō
• tumulōsus

• “tumulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tumulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tumulus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • on the edge of the hill: ad extremum tumulum
    
• “tumulus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “tumulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Ultimately from Arabic ثُمُن‎ (ṯumun, “an eighth”). Compare Italian tomolo. Compare thuminus.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tumulus m (genitive tumulī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) A unit of measure used in Sicily and Malta.

• tumulus 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)

tumulus m (plural tumuluși)

1. Alternative form of tumul