How do you spell /ˈärˌbəsəl/, a word from Latin that means: “a dwarf tree or shrub”?
If you guessed “arbustle”, I don’t blame you. There are plenty of common English words that end with “-ustle” (bustle, hustle, rustle…).
Note that none of those words have passed through Latin. However, arbuscle comes from the Latin root “arbuscula”, the diminutive of “arbor” meaning “tree”. It’s one of a group of Latin-derived words that are smaller versions of something, or small parts of something. Other examples:
- “opuscle”, a small or petty work (from “opusculum”, diminutive of Latin “opus” meaning “work”)
- “corpuscle”, a living cell (from “corpusculum”, diminutive of Latin “corpus” meaning “body”)
- “crepuscle”, meaning twilight (from “crepusculum”, diminutive of Latin “creper” meaning “dark”)
So how do you differentiate between “-ustle” and “uscle”?
For Latin nouns that mean a smaller part of something, the word will end in “-uscle” rather than “-ustle”. Meanwhile, words ending in “-ustle” are usually verbs. Be careful not to use this for adjectives–those are more likely to end in “-al”, such as “pertussal”, which is also from Latin.
In a bee, try asking if a word is from the Latin diminutive suffix “-usculum” or “-uscula”.