excubation

English

Etymology

From Latin excubatio, from excubare (“to lie out on guard”), from ex (“out”) + cubare (“to lie down”).

Noun

excubation (uncountable)

1. (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 […]