incunabula

[ in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing- ]

See synonyms for: incunabulum on Thesaurus.com

plural noun,singular in·cu·nab·u·lum

[in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luhm, ing-]. /ˌɪn kyʊˈnæb yə ləm, ˌɪŋ-/.

extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

Origin of incunabula

First recorded in 1815–25; from Latin: “straps holding a baby in a cradle, earliest home, birthplace,” probably equivalent to unattested *incūnā(re) “to place in a cradle” (in- in-² + unattested -cūnāre, verbal derivative of cūnae “cradle”) + -bula, plural of -bulum suffix of instrument; def. 1 as translation of German Wiegendrucke

Other words from incunabula

in·cu·nab·u·lar, adjective
post·in·cu·nab·u·la, adjective

Words Nearby incunabula

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use incunabula in a sentence

The term incunabula is now applied to all books printed before the year 1500.
The Book-Hunter at Home | P. B. M. Allan
It contained especially choice editions of the classics, and also many incunabula.
English Heraldic Book-stamps | Cyril Davenport
Beughem's incunabula Typographica, 1688, 12mo., is both jejune and grossly erroneous.
Bibliomania; or Book-Madness | Thomas Frognall Dibdin
By the term 'early-printed books' the bookseller generally means fifteenth-century works, or incunabula as they are now called.
The Book-Hunter at Home | P. B. M. Allan
One is the original editions of famous Elizabethan and early Stuart authors, the other, the more estimable incunabula.
The Book-Hunter at Home | P. B. M. Allan

British Dictionary definitions for incunabula

incunabula

/ (ˌɪnkjʊˈnæbjʊlə) /

pl nsingular -lum (-ləm)

any book printed before 1501
the infancy or earliest stages of something; beginnings

Origin of incunabula

C19: from Latin, originally: swaddling clothes, hence beginnings, from in- ² + cūnābula cradle

Derived forms of incunabula

incunabular, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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