incubus
See also: Incubus
English edit
Etymology edit
From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubō (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubō (“to lie upon, to hatch”), from in- (“on”) + cubō (“to lie down”).
Pronunciation edit
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈɪŋ.kjʊ.bəs/, /ˈɪn.kjə.bəs/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: incubous
Noun edit
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.
- 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.
- 1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:
- Ahead of us the lowering smoke-screen of Leeds and her gloomy satellites hung like an incubus over the land.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, pages 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 edit
an evil spirit
|
a nightmare
|
oppressive thing or person; a burden
|
See also edit
Further reading edit
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubo (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubare (“to lie upon, to hatch”).
Noun edit
incubus m (plural incubussen or incubi, diminutive incubusje n)
Synonyms edit
- (nightmare) nachtmerrie
See also edit
- succubus m
Latin edit
Etymology edit
From incubō¹ (“I lie upon”, “I brood over”, “I am a burden to”), perhaps via an alteration of the Classical incubō² (“incubus”, “nightmare”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈɪŋkʊbʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈiŋkubus]
Noun edit
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 edit
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 edit
Descendants edit
- Dutch: incubus
- English: incubus
- French: incube
- German: Incubus
- Italian: incubo
- Portuguese: íncubo
- Romanian: incub
- Russian: инку́б (inkúb)
- Spanish: íncubo
References edit
- “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