decubation
English
WOTD – 8 February 2021
Etymology
| PIE word |
|---|
| *de |
From Latin dēcubāre (“to lie in a bed (that is not one’s own)”) + English -ation (suffix indicating an action or process or its result). Dēcubāre is derived from dē- (prefix meaning ‘from, away from’) + cubāre (the present active infinitive of cubō (“to lie down, recline; to lie asleep, sleep; to be bedridden; to be sick; to incubate; to be broody”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-); compare dēcumbere, the present active infinitive of dēcumbō (“to lie down; to recline; to fall (in a fight)”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌdiːkjuːˈbeɪʃən/
Audio (RP) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˌdikjuˈbeɪʃən/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
- Hyphenation: de‧cub‧a‧tion
Noun
decubation (uncountable)
- (obsolete, rare, formal) The act of lying down.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) cubation, decumbence, decumbency, (obsolete) decumbiture
- 1670, John Evelyn, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, OCLC 988700438, chapter XXXV (An Historical Account of the Sacrednesse, and Use of Standing Groves, &c.), page 231:
- Here we may not omit what Learned men have obſerv'd concerning the Cuſtome of Prophets and Perſons inſpir'd of old, to ſleep [...] on Matraſſes and Beds made of their Leaves, ad Conſulendum to ask adviſe of God. [...] At this decubation upon Boughs the Satyriſt ſeems to hint where he introduces the Gypſies.
- 1856, Lorenzo Altisonant [pseudonym; Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour], “Response to the Above. [Letter No. XIII.]”, in Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, by Lorenzo Altisonant, an Emigrant to the West. […], 2nd edition, Cincinnati, Oh.: Applegate & Co., OCLC 247114380, page 46:
- Whatever might evene, I was procinct against a decubation in a state of deteriority, by an infrangible consortion with an amotorculist.
- 1886 July 17, “Will o’ the Wisp”, in Bon-Accord: The Illustrated News of the North, volume I, number 18, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire: Henry J. Clarke, […], OCLC 800752783, page 7, column 1:
- The editor of one of our Aberdeen papers, [...] jumped on board a farmer's pony, and bounded over the river's banks with more vigour than grace, knocked a few pipes out of the teeth of Aunt Sally in a field hard-by, and knocked two men into an attitude of decubation at Cults Station on the way home because they dared to intrude on his first-class privacy. Not a bad record for an afternoon, was it?
Related terms
- accubation
- accumbent
- accumb (obsolete)
- decubital
- decubitus
- decumbence
- decumbency
- decumbent
- decumbiture (obsolete)
- humicubation
- recumbence
- recumbency
- recumbent
- recumbently
Trivia
The word contains each of the vowels a, e, i, o, and u once.
References
- Compare “† decubation, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1894.
Anagrams
- inocubated