incunabulum

English

WOTD – 6 January 2008

An incunabulum.

Alternative forms

• incunable

Etymology

From Latin incūnābulum (“cradle, origin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.kjʊˈnæb.jʊ.ləm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

incunabulum (plural incunabula)

1. (printing) A book, single sheet, or image that was printed before the year 1501 in Europe.
   • August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, “The Treader of the Dust”, in Weird Tales:

     Sebastian, a profound student of such lore, had long believed that the book was a mere medieval legend; and he had been startled as well as gratified when he found this copy on the shelves of a dealer in old manuscripts and incunabula.

   • 2004, Luisa Graves, The Shadow of the Wind, translation of original by Carlos Ruiz Zafón:

     Something about him reminded me of one of those figures from old-fashioned playing cards or the sort used by fortune-tellers, a print straight from the pages of an incunabulum: his presence was both funereal and incandescent, like a curse dressed in its Sunday best.

2. (chiefly in the plural) The cradle, birthplace, or origin of something.

Related terms

• incunabular
• incunabulist

Translations

book, sheet or image

• Afrikaans: inkunabel, wiegdruk
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: інкуна́була f (inkunábula)
• Catalan: incunable (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 古版書／古版书 (gǔbǎnshū)

• Czech: inkunábule f, prvotisk m
• Danish: inkunabel c
• Dutch: wiegendruk (nl) m
• Estonian: inkunaabel, hälltrükised
• Finnish: inkunaabeli (fi), kehtopainate
• French: incunable (fr) m
• Georgian: ინკუნაბულა (inḳunabula)
• German: Inkunabel (de) f, Wiegendruck m
• Greek: αρχέτυπο (el) n (archétypo)
• Hungarian: ősnyomtatvány (hu)
• Icelandic: vögguprent
• Ido: inkunablo (io)
• Italian: incunabolo (it) m, incunabulo m
• Japanese: インキュナブラ (inkyunabura)
• Korean: 요람본 (ko) (yorambon)
• Macedonian: инкуна́була f (inkunábula)
• Norwegian Bokmål: inkunabel m, oldtrykk n
• Norwegian Nynorsk: inkunabel m, oldtrykk n
• Polish: inkunabuł (pl) m
• Portuguese: incunábulo (pt) m
• Romanian: incunabul (ro) n
• Russian: инкуна́була (ru) f (inkunábula), инкуна́бул m (inkunábul)
• Slovak: inkunábula f, prvotlač m
• Slovene: inkunabula f
• Spanish: incunable (es) m
• Swedish: inkunabel (sv) c, vaggtryck n
• Turkish: incunabulum
• Ukrainian: інкуна́була f (inkunábula)
• Welsh: incwnabwlwm

origin

• Finnish: kehto (fi)

Further reading

• incunable on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Michael Quinion (1996–2024) “Incunabulum”, in World Wide Words.
• Incunabula Collections, The British Library

Latin

Pronunciation

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in.kuˈna.bu.lum/, [iŋkuˈnäːbulum]

Noun

incūnābulum n (genitive incūnābulī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) Alternative form of incūnābula

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	incūnābulum	incūnābula
Genitive	incūnābulī	incūnābulōrum
Dative	incūnābulō	incūnābulīs
Accusative	incūnābulum	incūnābula
Ablative	incūnābulō	incūnābulīs
Vocative	incūnābulum	incūnābula