Today's Word "Incunabulum"
Published in Vocabulary
incunabulum /in-kyeh-NAE-byu-lehm/ (noun) - 1 : A book printed in the earliest period of printing, especially from Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1436 up to 1500; an incunable; 2 : any product of the earliest stage of development; 3 : a cocoon.
"The Tappet brothers were obsessed with ancient cars and never missed an exhibition of automotive incunambula."
Today's word is Latin incunabulum "swaddling clothes, cradle" composed of in "in" + cunabula the diminutive of cunae "cradle." This word is related to "cemetery," which comes from Latin "coemeterium," borrowed from Greek koimeterion "sleeping chamber, burial place," a locative noun from the verb koiman "to put to sleep." Sanskrit sete "he lies, sleeps" is another relative and, possibly, Shiva "the auspicious one," the oldest of the Indian gods