peniculus

A diminutive form of pēnis (“a tail”, anatomy “the penis”), formed as pēni(s) +‎ -culus (suffix forming diminutives), so, literally, “a little tail” or "a little penis".

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /peːˈni.ku.lus/, [peːˈnɪkʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /peˈni.ku.lus/, [peˈniːkulus]

pēniculus m (genitive pēniculī); second declension

1. a brush [for removing dust] (for which ox-tails and horse-tails were used)
2. a sponge (a soft kind used for medical purposes)
3. a painter’s brush or pencil
4. (perhaps, in an ambiguous sense) penis, membrum virile
5. (Medieval Latin) a scourge (kind of whip)

Second-declension noun.

• pēnicillum
• pēniculāmentum

• “pēnĭcŭlus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “peniculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• peniculus 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)
• pēnĭcŭlus 1 pēnĭcŭlus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,137/1.
• “peniculus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Jan Frederik Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus : Lexique Latin Médiéval–Français/Anglais : A Medieval Latin–French/English Dictionary, fascicle I (1976), page 783/1, “peniculus”