-tūra

Somewhat uncertain, but appears to be from Proto-Indo-European *-tew- + *-r-eh₂. Note however that some cases are built on agentives in -tōr: e.g. cēnsūra, gladiātūra.^[1] Resemblance to the future active participle -tūrus and archaic infinitive -tūrum is evidently accidental, though substantivizations like futūrus may have reinforced the use of -tūra.

Productive in earlier Latin but gradually overtaken by -tiō.

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtuː.ra/, [ˈt̪uːrä]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ra/, [ˈt̪uːrä]

Suffix

-tūra f (genitive -tūrae); first declension

Used to form action nouns expressing concrete results as well as activities: -ing, -ure

Usage notes

The suffix -tūra is added to the supine form of a verb to create a first-declension noun naming the verb's action or the result of that action.

Examples:

pictūra (“painting, picture”), from pictum, supine of pingō (“I paint”)

scrīptūra (“a writing, act of writing”), from scrīptum, supine of scrībō (“I write”)

The suffix -tūra resembles the feminine form of (but may not be related to) the future active participle ending -tūrus, which describes impending or imminent action (e.g. pictūrus "about to paint"; scrīptūrus "on the point of writing").

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-tūra	-tūrae
Genitive	-tūrae	-tūrārum
Dative	-tūrae	-tūrīs
Accusative	-tūram	-tūrās
Ablative	-tūrā	-tūrīs
Vocative	-tūra	-tūrae

[1