humicubation

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English

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Etymology

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From Latin humus (the ground) + cubare (to lie down).

Noun

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humicubation (countable and uncountable, plural humicubations)

  1. (obsolete) The act or practice of lying on the ground.
    • 1678, John Bramhall, The Works of the most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, D.D. The Late Lord Archbishop of Ardmagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland, volume III, Dublin: Benjamin Tooke, page 800:
      He is afraid, that this Doctrine of fasting, and mourning, and tears, and humicubation, and sackcloth, and ashes, pertaineth to the establishment of Romish pennance.
    • 1695, John Whitefoot, A Discourse upon I. Peter IV. VIII., Cambridge: John Hayes, page 16:
      The χαμολνία, Humicubation, lying upon ground, &c. which things have been overacted, and still are in the Greek and Roman Churches.
    • 1845, Peter Gunning, The Paschal or Lent Fast Apostolical and Perpetual, Oxford: John Henry Parker, page 147:
      For humicubation we have David's example, ‘And David fasted a fast, and went in and lay all night upon the earth.’