excubation
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin excubatio, from excubare (“to lie out on guard”), from ex (“out”) + cubare (“to lie down”).
Noun
[edit]excubation (uncountable)
- (obsolete) A keeping watch; a vigil.
- 1814, John Colin Dunlop, The History of Fiction:
- Yseult, who was not in the secret, demanded the reason of this perpetual excubation, and was, for the first time, informed that Tristan had sent for the queen of Cornwall.
- 1840, Philonauta, Naval Progression, or the Midshipman of the Old School:
- Infinitely more so than the lucubrations
Is the necessity there is for excubations.
Hard's the duty in three watches—worse watch and watch—
Expos'd to the elements without a thatch […]