cunabulum

Etymology

From cūnae +‎ -bulum (suffix forming a noun denoting vessel or place).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kuːˈnaː.bu.lum/, [kuːˈnaː.bʊ.ɫũ]

Noun

cūnābulum n (genitive cūnābulī); second declension

1. (especially in the plural) cradle
   • 44 BCE, Cicero, De Divinatione, book 1, XXXVI, 79:

     qui cum esset in cunabulis educareturque in Solonio, qui est campus agri Lanuvini; noctu lumine apposito, experrecta nutrix animadvertit puerum dormientem circumplicatum serpentis amplexu.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (metonymically) nest of living things
   • 29 BCE, Virgil, Georgics, book 4, line 66:

     Ipsae consident medicatis sedibus, ipsae/ Intima more suo sese in cunabula condent.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 77–79, Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 10, chapter 33, section 51:

     Nec vero iis minor solertia, quae cunabula in terra faciunt, corporis gravitate prohibitae sublime petere.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

3. (metonymically) earliest abode, primary dwelling-place
   • aft. 23 BCE, Propertius, Elegies, book 3, elegy 1, line 27:

     Idaeum Simoenta Jovis cunabula parvi?

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • bef. 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid, book 3, line 105:

     Creta Jovis magni medio jacet insula ponto,/ Mons Idaeus ubi, et gentis cunabula nostrae.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

4. (metonymically) birth, origin
   • 44 BCE, Cicero, De Lege Agraria, chapter 36, section 100:

     Nam cum omnium consulum gravis in republica custodienda cura ac diligentia debet esse, tum eorum maxime, qui non in cunabulis, sed in campo sunt consules facti. (not by their descent)

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • flor. 42, Columella, Res rustica, book 1, chapter 3:

     quod facit, qui nequam vicinum suis numis parat, cum a primis cunabulis, si modo liberis parentibus est oriundus, audisse potuerit, [...]. (from earliest childhood)

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • flor. 163, Apuleius, Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, book 2, section 31:

     Dies a primis cunabulis huius urbis conditus crastinus advenit, quo die soli mortalium sanctissimum deum Risum hilaro atque gaudiali ritu propitiamus.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

References

• cūnābŭla in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cūnābŭla in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette