Where does the prefix cul- come from. Is it Latin? I couldn’t find it. I see it in the words ‘culminate’, ‘culpable’ ‘cul de sac’ etc. I believe I read somewhere that it can mean ‘adverse’. Not sure.
cul in cul-de-sac means bottom as in bottom of the bag
Culpable comes from the Latin “culpa,” meaning “blame” or “fault.” Might not be related to the other words.
Culminate and culpable have different root words. The former is “culmen,” meaning “peak.” kenobi pointed out the latter.
And tail/ass. So in French there’s “lèche-cul”, which basically means “ass licker”.
Ummm, it’s not a prefix.
Trying to suss out English from syllables is a hopeless task when the same three letters can come from “bottom” and “peak”.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cul#French
Etymology
From Middle French cul, from Old French, from Latin cūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *kuH-l-, zero-grade without s-mobile form of *(s)kewH- (“to cover”).
Thanks gnoitall. So it does have a Latin root!
Well, yes, but the various “cul” words you asked about all come from different Latin root words.
More accurately : “she’s horny.”
Some profanities following:
(+/- “She’s got heat in her ass”)
In French naughty bits are not associated with hotness but with “goodness” : she’s got a hot ass = Il est bon, son cul (literally “It is good, her ass”).
I am not a mod. Still, this is going in a bad direction.
See also Oh Cacutta !
(A British musical)
The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille, itself a pun on "O quel cul t’as! ", French for “Oh, what an arse you have!”
In the UK (and presumably also in the US) dead-end roads are sometimes used to signed as “cul de sac”. In France, they call a dead end road a “voie sans issue”.
Cul-de-sac is definitely a common term in the U.S., though it typically refers to a specific kind of dead-end road: one with an enlarged circular end, to make turning around easier.
Example:
On old city maps you sometimes see dead-end alleys labeled “Sack Alley”. When I say “old” I’m thinking of Baist Real Estate Survey or Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from at least a century ago.