Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. A diminutive termination
in Latin words, some of which have entered English without
change, as fasciculus, curriculum, operculum, opusculum,
tenaculum, vinculum, etc., but which have usually taken the form
-cule, as in animalcule, reticule, etc., or more frequently
-cle, as in article, auricle, particle, conventicle, versicle,
ventricle, etc. See -cule, -cle. “The Tensor has a convenient
list of English words derived from Latin words with the
diminutive -culus suffix; he adds:The oddest one I found was
muscle, which comes from the diminutive of mus 'mouse'.” “He
also includes "a few words that I would have guessed contained
-culus, but don't.” “We were discussing the origin of the Latin
name for "a little fig", grossulus, and I seemed to remember
that -ulus not necessarily -culus denotes a diminutive.” “The
two movements of description and theory formation are as
inseparably interrelated as they were in physics and astronomy
where the analysis of simple processes, for in