incube

Forms

incube m (plural incubes)^[1] Middle French also incubon, and the Latin form incubus used in French texts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin incubus (“nightmare, satyr”), a Late Latin derivative of classical incubō (“to lie on”).^[3][4][5] Littré analyses the Latin verb as in- and cubō (“to lie down”).^[6] Bloch and Wartburg explain that the Latin word for a nightmare, the weight felt on the sleeper, came to name in Church Latin the demon believed to lie on sleeping women.^[7] The learned form incubus “nightmare” is already used in French by Aldobrandino of Siena about 1256.^[3][8][9] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has Anglo-Norman incube “demon, evil spirit”, with the spellings inchube and incubus, from 1155.^[10]

Wiktionary treats the modern word as inherited from the Old French word, itself borrowed from Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Aldobrandino of Siena's Régime du corps (about 1256) incubus is the nightmare, the feeling of a weight pressing on the sleeper, which the text glosses in French as apesart.^[11][3] The form incube for the demon is dated 1372 by the TLFi, in Jean Corbichon's translation of the Propriétés des choses, where it is named beside satyrs.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word is used both as an adjective, of a demon “that couples with a sleeping person” (un deable incube, Bersuire, about 1354–1359), and as a noun beside its female counterpart subcube.^[12] The older medical sense “nightmare” stayed alive in Latin form: Ambroise Paré in the 16th century explains incubus as a night illness in which one feels crushed by a heavy load, and describes the incubes as demons taking the shape of men to lie with witches.^[6]

Richelet in 1680 records the word in the sense “lesbian”, which did not last.^[4] In modern French incube is a term of theology and demonology, the male demon set against the succube;^[3][13] Huysmans used the rare derivative incubat “the nature of the incubus” in 1891.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1256 – The learned form incubus “nightmare” in Aldobrandino of Siena's Régime du corps.^[3][8]
• c. 1354–1359 – Bersuire calls a demon deable incube.^[12]
• 1372 – Incubes named with satyrs in Corbichon's Propriétés des choses.^[3][7]
• 16th century – Ambroise Paré describes incubes as demons in the shape of men.^[6]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense “lesbian”.^[4]
• 1891 – Huysmans uses the derivative incubat.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (theology, demonology) An incubus, a male demon believed to have intercourse with women in their sleep, as opposed to the succube.^[3][13][14]
2. (attributive) Of such a demon, in démons incubes et succubes.^[3]

Related words

• succube
• incuber
• incubation
• Latin incubus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 632a
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
13. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)