word of the day: incunabula

The word of the day is incunabula:

1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.

2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.

< Latin: straps holding a baby in a cradle, earliest home, birthplace, probably equivalent to *incūnā (re) to place in a cradle ( in- in-²+ *-cūnāre, verbal derivative of cūnae cradle) + -bula, plural of -bulum suffix of instrumen (dictionary.com) 

 

 

"I also got the debutante to divert him long enough (the grotto was child's play after her tetes-a-tetes with the troll) for me to steal his Angels of Saxony, his vocabulary, his incunabula, and his wife."

 

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Torn Wings and Faux Pas