cunabulum

Latin

FWOTD – 26 December 2022

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kuːˈnaː.bu.lum/, [kuːˈnäːbʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kuˈna.bu.lum/, [kuˈnäːbulum]

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.

     Who, when he was in his cradle (being brought up in Solonium, which is a district of the territories of Lanuvium)---a light being located nearby, his nurse woke up and saw the sleeping boy entwined in the coils of a snake.

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.

     Of themselves will they [bees] settle on the scented resting-places; of themselves, after their wont, will hide far within their cradling cells.

   • 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 quotation)

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 quotation)

   • 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 quotation)

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 quotation)

   • 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 quotation)

   • 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 quotation)

Usage notes

This word is only attested in the plural (with singular meaning – a plurale tantum) until the Late Latin period.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cūnābulum	cūnābula
Genitive	cūnābulī	cūnābulōrum
Dative	cūnābulō	cūnābulīs
Accusative	cūnābulum	cūnābula
Ablative	cūnābulō	cūnābulīs
Vocative	cūnābulum	cūnābula

Derived terms

• incūnābula

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.