LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Allen & Greenough · Part First — Words and Forms › Formation of Words

§240. Names of Actions and Abstract Nouns

Nouns denoting means or instrument are formed from roots and verb-stems (rarely from noun-stems) by means of the neuter suffixes—

-bulum, -culum, -brum, -crum, -trum

pā-bulum, fodder;pāscere, to feed.
sta-bulum, stall;stāre, to stand.
vehi-culum, wagon;vehere, to carry.
candēlā-brum, candlestick;candēla, candle (a secondary formation).
sepul-crum, tomb;sepelīre, to bury.
claus-trum († claud-trum), bar;claudere, to shut.
arā-trum, plough;arāre, to plough.

a. A few masculines and feminines of the same formation occur as nouns and adjectives:—

fā-bula, tale;fārī, to speak.
rīdi-culus, laughable;rīdēre, to laugh.
fa-ber, smith;facere, to make.
late-bra, hiding-place;latēre, to hide.
tere-bra, auger;terere, to bore.
mulc-tra, milk-pail;mulgēre, to milk.

J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.