incubo

Forms

incubō (present infinitive incubāre, perfect active incubuī, supine incubitum); first conjugation, no passive^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + cubō (“to lie”).^[2] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *enkubāō.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kubā̆je/o- (“to be lying”) for ⟨cubō⟩ and finds its origin uncertain, since the root ⟨*kub-⟩ is limited to Italic and Celtic; cognates are Faliscan cupat (“lies”) and Welsh kyscu (“to sleep”), and Paelignian has the compound ⟨incubat⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest examples are in Plautus: in the Casina a slave will stay put in the country, and in the Curculio a sick pimp sleeps in the temple of Aesculapius.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is “to lie on, recline”, and of birds “to sit on eggs”, as Ovid's halcyon brooding on her nest over the sea; of burdens it is “to rest on”, and of darkness “to brood over”, as Virgil's black night over the sea.^[2][4] It also means to have one's lair or abode somewhere, and to sleep in a temple to receive dreams or healing.^[2] In Cicero and Seneca it is to keep jealous watch over wealth, to brood over it.^[2][1] The OLD notes that perfect forms ⟨incubuī⟩ are hard to tell from those of incumbō.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “lie in, lie on”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sleeping in a temple.^[2][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of brooding over money.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of night brooding over the sea.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a bird on its nest.^[2][6]
• 1640s – English incubate is formed from its participle, first in the sense “to brood upon”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lie on, recline; to sit on eggs; to rest on; to brood over.^[2][4][1][5]
2. To dwell in a place; to sleep in a temple for dreams or healing.^[2][1]
3. To lean or hang over.^[2]
4. To fall upon.^[2]
5. To keep jealous watch over; to brood over.^[2][1]

Word family

• incubātiō
• incubator
• incubitus
• incubus
• superincubō

Related words

• cubō
• incumbō
• English incubate

Usage notes

The noun incubō, -ōnis, formed from this verb, is a spirit guarding buried treasure in Petronius and a nightmare spirit that lies on sleepers in Largus.^[2][4] Medieval sources use it, with incubus, for an incubus or satyr.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill