excubation

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English

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Etymology

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

Noun

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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 []