Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cultellus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CULTEL'LUS (μαχαιρίς, μαχαίριον). Diminutive of CULTER; and employed in nearly the same senses, only designating a lesser description of each kind. But the cultellus is never so small as our pocket and pen-knife (scalprum); for Juvenal designates a carving-knife by the diminutive (Sat. v. 122.); Ulpian (Dig. 9. 2. 11.), a barber's razor; and the cultellus of Horace (Ep. i. 7. 51.), which people used to clean and pare their nails with, was the same as the barber's instrument, which is expressly name for that purpose by Valerius Maximus (iii. 2. 15.), cultellum tonsorium quasi unguium resecandorum causa poposcit.

2. Cultellus ligneus. A wedge of wood; which is sharper at the edge than at the back, like the blade of a culter. Vitruv. vii. 3. 2.