incunabulum

English

WOTD – 6 January 2008
An incunabulum.

Etymology

From Latin incūnābulum (“cradle, origin”)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌɪn.kjʊˈnæb.jʊ.ləm/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

incunabulum (plural incunabula)

  1. A book, single sheet, or image that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe.
    • 2004, Luisa Graves (translator), Carlos Ruiz Zafón (author), The Shadow of the Wind,
      Something about him reminded me of one of those figures from old-fashioned playing cards or the sort used by fortune-tellers, a print straight from the pages of an incunabulum: his presence was both funereal and incandescent, like a curse dressed in its Sunday best.

Usage notes

  • This word is better known, and more widely used, in its plural form, incunabula.

Translations

References

Latin

Etymology

From in- +‎ cūnābulum.

Pronunciation

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /in.kuːˈnaː.bu.lum/, [ɪŋ.kuːˈnaː.bʊ.ɫũ]
  • (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /in.kuˈna.bu.lum/, [iŋ.kuˈnaː.bu.lum]

Noun

incūnābulum n (genitive incūnābulī); second declension

  1. (especially in the plural) the apparatus of the cradle
  2. birthplace, origin

Inflection

Second declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative incūnābulum incūnābula
genitive incūnābulī incūnābulōrum
dative incūnābulō incūnābulīs
accusative incūnābulum incūnābula
ablative incūnābulō incūnābulīs
vocative incūnābulum incūnābula

References

  • Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • (ambiguous) the origin, first beginnings of learning: incunabula doctrinae
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.