anculus

From Proto-Italic *amβikʷolos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi-kʷol(h₁)-ós, from *h₂m̥bʰí (“around, at the side”) +‎ *kʷel(h₁)- (whence colō (“I till, cultivate; I inhabit”)). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀμφίπολος (amphípolos, “attendant, follower”), Old Persian [script needed] (ābicarīš, “place inhabited or tilled by servants”, acc.pl.)^[1] and Sanskrit अभिचर (abhicara, “servant”) (cf. also अभिचार (abhicārá, “witchcraft”)).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈan.ku.lus/, [ˈäŋkʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈan.ku.lus/, [ˈäŋkulus]

anculus m (genitive anculī); second declension

1. (archaic) a manservant

This word fell into disuse, having been limited to liturgical use, and was replaced by famulus and servus, but its feminine counterpart ancilla is well attested.

Second-declension noun.

• ancula

• servus
• sclavus
• familiāris

• “ancŭlus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• anculus 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)
• anculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.