cunabula Latin · revision 36479

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la cūnae}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kuːˈnaː.bʊ.ɫa]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [kuˈnaː.bu.la]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cūnābula''' ''n pl'' (genitive cūnābulōrum); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Grammarians list it among nouns that are always neuter plural,^(TLL) but Priscian and the glossaries also have a singular ''cūnābulum''.^(TLL)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|cūnae|-bulum]],^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) from [[m|la|cūnae|t=cradle]] with a suffix for vessels and places.^(Wiktionary) The noun [[m|la|cūnae|alt=cūnae]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*koina-|t=cradle]] and [[ine-pro|*ḱoi-no-|t=lair, cradle]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Cicero has it first, in ''On Divination'', of a child lying in the [[m|en|cradle]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Besides a baby's cradle, Virgil uses it of the cells where young bees are reared and Pliny the Elder of birds' nests.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) As a symbol of infancy it meant one's earliest years, as in ''a prīmīs cūnābulīs'' “from the cradle” in Columella,^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) and also birth or descent: Cicero speaks of consuls made not in the cradle but on the Campus Martius, that is, not by their descent.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) By another extension it meant the first home of a person or people, as Virgil calls Crete the cradle “of our race”,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and the beginnings of anything, the origins of a city in Apuleius or of law in the Digest.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Bede explains it as swaddling clothes,^(TLL) and Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the senses cradle and nest.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a child's cradle and, figuratively, for birth.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the cells of young bees and for the first home of a people.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella has ''a prīmīs cūnābulīs'', “from earliest childhood”.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for birds' nests.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius speaks of the cradle of a city.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|cradle]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The cells of young bees; a bird's [[m|en|nest]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Earliest childhood; birth, descent.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The first home of a person or people, a [[m|en|birthplace]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A beginning, [[m|en|origin]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[incūnābula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}