decubation

English

WOTD – 8 February 2021

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdiːkjuːˈbeɪʃən/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌdikjuˈbeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: de‧cub‧a‧tion

Noun

decubation (uncountable)

1. (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.

     Intentionally written in a bombastic style.

   • 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

• accubation
• accumbent
• accumb (obsolete)
• decubital
• decubitus
• decumbence
• decumbency
• decumbent
• decumbiture (obsolete)
• humicubation
• recumbence
• recumbency
• recumbent
• recumbently

 

Trivia

The word contains each of the vowels a, e, i, o, and u once.

Anagrams

• inocubated