incubus

See also: Incubus

English

WOTD – 27 May 2010

Johann Heinrich Füssli, The Nightmare, 1790-1791 portrait of an incubus.

Etymology

From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubō (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubō (“to lie upon, to hatch”, from in- (“on”) +‎ cubō (“to lie down”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋ.kjʊ.bəs/, /ˈɪn.kjə.bəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: incubous

Noun

incubus (plural incubi or incubuses)

1. (mediaeval folklore) An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.

   Coordinate term: succubus

   Hypernyms: evil spirit, spirit

2. A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.

   Synonym: nightmare

   • Burton with W.H. Gass, The Anatomy of Melancholy, NYRB Classics ser. (New York: New York Review Books, 2001, orig. 1932), →ISBN, vol. 1, p. 249:

     it increaseth fearful dreams, incubus, night-walking, crying out, and much unquietness  […] .

3. (by extension) Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.
   • August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, "The Treader of the Dust":

     Again he felt the impulse of flight: but his body was a dry dead incubus that refused to obey his volition.

   • 1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

     Ahead of us the lowering smoke-screen of Leeds and her gloomy satellites hung like an incubus over the land.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, pages 132–3:

     Notions of civic virtue were at that moment changing, in ways which would make of Louis's alleged vices an incubus on the back of the monarchy.

4. (entomology) One of various of parasitic insects, especially subfamily Aphidiinae.

Translations

an evil spirit

• Arabic: جَاثُوم m (jāṯūm), كَابُوس (ar) m (kābūs)
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: инкуб (inkub)
• Catalan: íncub m, íncube (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惡魔／恶魔 (zh) (èmó)

• Czech: incubus m
• Dutch: incubus
• Esperanto: inkubo
• Finnish: incubus (fi), miespuolinen demoni
• French: incube (fr) m
• German: Inkubus (de) m
• Hungarian: inkubusz, lidérc (hu)
• Italian: incubo (it) m
• Japanese: インキュバス (inkyubasu), 夢魔 (ja) (muma)
• Korean: 몽마 (mongma)
• Latin: incubus m, incubo m
• Lithuanian: inkubai
• Marathi: इंक्युबस m (iṅkyubas)
• Persian: کابوس (fa) (kâbus), بختک (fa) (baxtak), درفنجک (fa) (darfanjak)
• Polish: inkub (pl) m
• Portuguese: íncubo (pt)
• Romanian: incub (ro) m
• Russian: инку́б (ru) m (inkúb), де́мон (ru) m (démon), злой дух m (zloj dux), злой ге́ний m (zloj génij)
• Spanish: íncubo (es) m
• Sumerian: 𒋼𒇲 (/⁠gallu⁠/), 𒌜 (/⁠udug⁠/), 𒀉𒉺 (/⁠asag⁠/), 𒀀𒇲 (/⁠ala⁠/)
• Swedish: incubus
• Turkish: karabasan (tr)

a nightmare

• Arabic: كابوس (ar), حلم (ar)
• Bulgarian: кошмар (bg) m (košmar)
• Catalan: íncub m, íncube (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 夢魘／梦魇 (zh) (mèngyǎn)

• Dutch: nachtmerrie (nl)
• French: cauchemar (fr) m, terreurs nocturnes, incube (fr) m
• German: Albtraum (de) m
• Hungarian: lidércnyomás (hu)
• Italian: incubo (it) m
• Japanese: 悪夢 (ja) (akumu)
• Latin: incubo f, incubus m
• Polish: koszmar (pl) m
• Portuguese: pesadelo (pt) m, íncubo (pt) m
• Russian: кошма́р (ru) m (košmár), дурно́й сон m (durnój son)
• Spanish: pesadilla (es) f

oppressive thing or person; a burden

• Arabic: باروك m (bārūk)
• Dutch: last (nl), juk (nl) n, obsessie (nl)
• French: fardeau (fr), boulet (fr), croix (fr), tyran (fr), sangsue (fr), vampire (fr)
• German: Last (de) f, Kreuz (de) n
• Japanese: 重荷 (ja) (omoni)
• Russian: груз забо́т m (gruz zabót), гнёт (ru) m (gnjot), бре́мя (ru) n (brémja)
• Spanish: cruz (es) f, carga (es) f

See also

• incubous
• succubus

Further reading

• incubus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubo (“nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper”), from incubare (“to lie upon, to hatch”).

Noun

incubus m (plural incubussen or incubi, diminutive incubusje n)

1. an incubus (evil spirit)
2. a nightmare (horrible dream)
3. a burden, obsession, yoke

Synonyms

• (nightmare) nachtmerrie

See also

• succubus m

Latin

Etymology

From incubō¹ (“I lie upon”, “I brood over”, “I am a burden to”), perhaps via an alteration of the Classical incubō² (“incubus”, “nightmare”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈɪŋkʊbʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.ku.bus/, [ˈiŋkubus]

Noun

incubus m (genitive incubī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) the nightmare, incubus

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Augustine of Hippo to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Isidore of Seville to this entry?)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	incubus	incubī
genitive	incubī	incubōrum
dative	incubō	incubīs
accusative	incubum	incubōs
ablative	incubō	incubīs
vocative	incube	incubī

Synonyms

• (nightmare, incubus): incubitor, incubō

Descendants

• Dutch: incubus
• English: incubus
• French: incube
• German: Incubus
• Italian: incubo
• Portuguese: íncubo
• Romanian: incub
• Russian: инку́б (inkúb)
• Spanish: íncubo

References

• “incŭbus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• INCUBI in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• incŭbus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 801/1.
• Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976) “incubo (genet. -onis), incubus”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, page 524/2