excubo

Forms

excubō (present infinitive excubāre, perfect active excubuī, supine excubitum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + cubō (“to lie down”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces cubō to Proto-Italic *kubā̆je/o- (“to be lying”); because of its /b/ and its restriction to Italic and Celtic, a Proto-Indo-European origin is uncertain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Cicero, of people spending the night in the shrine of Pasiphae to receive dreams.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is to lie or sleep out of doors, as Cicero's Spartans told to leave the city and spend the night under arms in the fields;^[5][2] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical.^[5][2] Its usual sense is to keep watch or guard, as Caesar's ships on watch at a harbour, and Seneca uses it of the stars keeping their stations.^[2] Figuratively it is to be vigilant: Cicero promises to watch and keep awake for the people.^[2] Its derivatives excubiae and excubitor are words for sentries and watches.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “keep watch, guard”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sleeping in a shrine and of vigilance for the state.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of ships keeping watch.^[2][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the stars at their posts.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lie or sleep out of doors, spend the night in the open.^[2][5][1]
2. To keep watch, stand guard.^[2][1][6]
3. (figurative) To be vigilant.^[2]

Word family

• excubātiō
• excubiae
• excubitor
• excubitorium
• excubitus

Related words

• cubō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de