incunabula Latin · revision 4508

15 Oct 2026, 23:25 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=Plautus|origins=la cūnae}}
+ 
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ɪŋ.kuːˈnaː.bʊ.ɫa]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [iŋ.kuˈnaː.bu.la]^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Forms==
+ '''incūnābula''' ''n pl'' (genitive incūnābulōrum); second declension^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[af|la|in-|cūnābula|t2=cradle]],^(OLD 2012) from [[cunae|alt=cūnae]] “cradle”.^(Döderlein 1874)^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Plautus, in the Amphitruo, says the baby Hercules was so strong no one could bind him in his swaddling bands.^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+ 
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It was the bedding and bands of a cradle, swaddling clothes, as in Plautus' list of swaddling bands, pillows, cradle and cradle-clothes.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Döderlein notes that [[cunae|alt=cūnae]] is the cradle itself, ''incūnābula'' the things in it.^(Döderlein 1874) By extension it was the cradle, as Ovid's cradle of Bacchus, one's birthplace, as Cicero speaks of going to his native hills and cradle, and earliest childhood, as in Livy.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+ 
+ In medieval Latin it was a cradle and figuratively infancy, often in ''ab incūnābulīs'' “from the cradle”.^(DMLBS)^(MLW) The singular [[en|incunabulum]] was taken up in 1861, after German usage, for a book printed in the infancy of printing.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of swaddling bands.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a birthplace.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid speaks of the cradle of Bacchus and of Jupiter.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 1861 – English ''incunabulum'' is used of an early printed book.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # Swaddling clothes; the bedding of a [[m|en|cradle]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # A cradle; a birthplace.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Earliest childhood; beginnings, origin.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[cunae|alt=cūnae]]
+ * [[en|incunabula]]
+ 
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}