incubatio

Forms

incubātiō f (genitive incubātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incubō (“to lie on; to brood”) + -tiō.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) is the first to use it, for the sitting of birds on their eggs: he says that brooding is begun after the new moon.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

Palladius uses it of mother birds excused from brooding.^[2] In the law of the Theodosian Code it means the long occupation of someone else's property, an unlawful possession that cannot set aside the emperor's rights,^[2][4] and Niermeyer gives that sense, usurpation, for medieval Latin.^[5] John Cassian uses it of spirits that lie upon sleeping people at night.^[2] The MLW adds the senses oppression or distress, and rape.^[6] British medieval writers kept the classical sense of a bird sitting on eggs.^[7]

English took it in the 1610s, first figuratively as a brooding.^[8]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the brooding of birds.^[1][3]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it of brooding birds.^[2][3]
• c. 360–c. 435 AD – John Cassian uses it of spirits lying on sleepers.^[2][3]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code uses it for unlawful possession.^[2][3]
• 1610s – English borrows it as incubation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sitting of birds on eggs, brooding, incubation.^[1][4][2]
2. (Late Latin, law) Unlawful possession of another's property, usurpation.^[4][2][5]
3. (Late Latin) A lying upon a sleeping person.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) Oppression, distress.^[6]

Related words

• incubator
• English incubation

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com