Etymologically
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accubo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈak.kʊ.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈak.ku.bo][1]

Forms

accubō (present infinitive accubāre); first conjugation, no perfect or supine stems, impersonal in the passive[1] It is also spelled adcubō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + cubō (“to lie down”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, of lying at table: a wife is told she may see her husband reclining with a garland, his arms around his mistress.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to lie or recline, at table, in bed or at rest, and to lie beside someone: in Plautus two guards always lie by a girl.[2][3] Plautus also uses it of a dog lying quietly.[2] Pliny the Elder has miners lying prone as they dig for a vein, and Virgil has the greatest of the Furies reclining close by.[2][3] Of things it is to lie or be situated by something, as a sacred grove with its shade in Virgil.[2] Apuleius uses it with an object, of a husband lying on a bed.[2] The perfect ⟨accubuī⟩ belongs to accumbō.[2][3] Church Latin glosses it to lie down, recline.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of reclining at table and of guards lying by a girl.[2][3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a Fury reclining and of a grove.[2][3][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of miners lying prone.[2][4]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of lying on a bed.[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lie, recline at table; to dine.[2][3][1][5]
  2. To lie in bed or at rest; to lie beside someone; of animals, to lie.[2][3][1]
  3. Of things, to lie by, be situated near.[2]
  4. With an object, to lie on.[2]

Word family

  • accubātiō
  • accubitālia
  • accubitiō
  • accubitōrius
  • accubitum
  • accubitus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson