# peculium
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin peculium. See peculiar.

### Noun

peculium (plural peculia)
* (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.
* 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: /peˈkuː.li.um/, [pɛˈkuːlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /peˈku.li.um/, [peˈkuːlium]

### Noun

pecūlium n (genitive pecūliī or pecūlī); second declension
* 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).
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | pecūlium | pecūlia |
| Genitive | pecūliī pecūlī$^1$ | pecūliōrum |
| Dative | pecūliō | pecūliīs |
| Accusative | pecūlium | pecūlia |
| Ablative | pecūliō | pecūliīs |
| Vocative | pecūlium | pecūlia |
$^1$Found 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
* ↑ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “pecūlium”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 271
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pecu”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 454