incubus
See also: Incubus
English
WOTD – 27 May 2010
![](Images/wiktionary/Johann_Heinrich_F%C3%BCssli_053.jpg.webp)
Johann Heinrich Füssli, The Nightmare, 1790-1791 portrait of an incubus.
Etymology
From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubō (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubāre (“to lie upon, to hatch”), from in- (“on”) + cubāre (“to lie down”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈɪŋ.kjʊ.bəs/, /ˈɪn.kjə.bəs/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: incubous
Noun
incubus (plural incubi or incubuses)
- (mediaeval folklore) An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.
- Antonym: succubus
- Hypernyms: evil spirit, spirit
- A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.
- Synonym: nightmare
- Burton with W.H. Gass, The Anatomy of Melancholy, NYRB Classics ser. (New York: New York Review Books, 2001, orig. 1932), →ISBN, vol. 1, p. 249:
- it increaseth fearful dreams, incubus, night-walking, crying out, and much unquietness […] .
- (by extension) Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.
- August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, "The Treader of the Dust":
- Again he felt the impulse of flight: but his body was a dry dead incubus that refused to obey his volition.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 132-3:
- Notions of civic virtue were at that moment changing, in ways which would make of Louis's alleged vices an incubus on the back of the monarchy.
- August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, "The Treader of the Dust":
- (entomology) One of various of parasitic insects, especially subfamily Aphidiinae.
Translations
an evil spirit
|
a nightmare
|
oppressive thing or person; a burden
|
See also
- incubous
- succubus
Further reading
incubus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Dutch
Etymology
From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubo (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubare (“to lie upon, to hatch”).
Noun
incubus m (plural incubussen or incubi, diminutive incubusje n)
- An incubus, evil spirit
- A nightmare, horrible dream
- A burden, obsession, yoke
Synonyms
- (nightmare) nachtmerrie
See also
- succubus m
Latin
Etymology
From incubō¹ (“I lie upon”, “I brood over”, “I am a burden to”), perhaps via an alteration of the Classical incubō² (“incubus”, “nightmare”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈɪŋkʊbʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈiŋkubus]
Noun
incubus m (genitive incubī); second declension
- (Late Latin) the nightmare, incubus
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Augustine of Hippo to this entry?)
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Isidore of Seville to this entry?)
Declension
Second-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | incubus | incubī |
Genitive | incubī | incubōrum |
Dative | incubō | incubīs |
Accusative | incubum | incubōs |
Ablative | incubō | incubīs |
Vocative | incube | incubī |
Synonyms
- (nightmare, incubus): incubitor, incubō
Descendants
- Dutch: incubus
- English: incubus
- French: incube
- German: Incubus
- Italian: incubo
- Portuguese: íncubo
- Russian: инку́б (inkúb)
- Spanish: íncubo
References
- “incŭbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- INCUBI in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- incŭbus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 801/1
- Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “incubo (genet. -onis), incubus”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, page 524/2