decubation
English edit
Etymology edit
| PIE word |
|---|
| *de |
From Latin dēcubō (“to lie in a bed (that is not one’s own)”) + -ation (suffix indicating an action or process or its result). Dēcubō is derived from dē- (“from”) + cubō (“to lie down”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-); compare dēcumbō (“to lie down”).[1]
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌdiːkjuːˈbeɪʃən/
Audio (RP) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˌdikjuˈbeɪʃən/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
- Hyphenation: de‧cub‧a‧tion
Noun edit
decubation (uncountable)
- (obsolete, rare, formal) The act of lying down.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) cubation, decumbence, decumbency, (obsolete) decumbiture
- 1670, John Evelyn, “. Chapter XXXV. An Historical Account of the Sacrednesse, and Use of Standing Groves, &c..”, in 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, 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, 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, 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 edit
Trivia edit
The word contains each of the vowels a, e, i, o, and u once.
References edit
- ^ Compare “† decubation, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1894.
