incunabulum

English

WOTD – 6 January 2008

Etymology

From Latin incūnābulum (“cradle, origin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.kjʊˈnæb.jʊ.ləm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

incunabulum (plural incunabula)

2. (printing) A book, single sheet, or image that was printed before the year 1501 in Europe.

   Alternative form: incunable

   Synonym: fifteener (informal)

   • 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.

3. (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: (please verify) 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, incunabel (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 (1996–2025), “Incunabulum”, in World Wide Words.
• Incunabula Collections, The British Library

Latin

Pronunciation

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [iŋ.kuˈnaː.bu.lum]

Noun

incūnābulum n (genitive incūnābulī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) alternative form of incūnābula

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	incūnābulum	incūnābula
genitive	incūnābulī	incūnābulōrum
dative	incūnābulō	incūnābulīs
accusative	incūnābulum	incūnābula
ablative	incūnābulō	incūnābulīs
vocative	incūnābulum	incūnābula