English
librocubicularist
Librocubicularist may come from English cubicular.
- English1500–presentcubicularuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1919librocubicularist
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- English1500–presentcubicularuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1919librocubicularist
Earliest quotation: 1919, Christopher Morley, Roger Raids the Ice-box: “Miss Chapman, you take the book up with you…”
Formed from libro- + cubicular ‘(obsolete) belonging to a bedchamber’ + -ist
Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- ‘to desire, covet, want’
Proto-Indo-European *lubʰrós
Proto-Italic *luβros ‘bark’
Latin liber ‘book’
English libro-
Proto-Italic *kubāō ‘to lie down’
Latin cubō ‘to lie down, recline’
Latin cubiculum ‘small bedroom, bedchamber’
Latin cubiculāris ‘relating to a bedroom’
English cubicular
The story
Coined by the American writer Christopher Morley (1890–1957) in The Haunted Bookshop (1919; see the quotation), probably from libro- (prefix meaning ‘book’) + cubicular (‘(obsolete) belonging to a bedchamber’) + -ist (suffix denoting one who engages in a particular type of activity). Cubicular is a learned borrowing from Latin cubiculāris (‘relating to a bedroom’), from cubiculum (‘small bedroom, bedchamber’) + -āris (‘suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining’ to forming adjectives’); and cubiculum is derived from cubāre (the present active infinitive of cubō (‘to lie down, recline; to sleep’), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-) + -i- (interfix used between stems and suffixes) + -culum (an inflected form of -culus, a variant of -ulus (diminutive suffix)).
Linked words
through Proto-Italic *kubāō ‘to lie down’
incubation, incubus, incubate, 15 more
through Latin cubō ‘to lie down, recline’
covid, succubus, cubit, 14 more
through Latin cubiculum ‘small bedroom’
Today it means
noun A person who reads in bed.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English cubicular / librocubicularist