excubation · noun — A keeping watch; a vigil. It carries an Arena rating of 1651, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, excubation ranks #708 of 17,197 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,783 of 17,151 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,314 of 17,171 for Scariest Words, #2,865 of 17,163 for Most Sublime Words.
Why “excubation” is a great word
The act of keeping a protective watch, especially through the night. From the Latin excubatio, from excubare ("to lie out on guard"), from ex ("out") + cubare ("to lie down"), first attested in English in 1623. Unlike "vigil," which often implies a period of wakefulness for prayer or mourning, or "surveillance," which suggests a covert, informational observation, excubation is the specific, devoted posture of a stationed guard. It is the steady breath misting in the cold air of a rampart, the muffled crack of charcoal in a brazier keeping a single point of heat alive in the dark, and the fixed gaze into the blackness beyond the firelight—a conscious act of stillness, measuring the night by the rhythm of another's breath.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Latin excubatio, from excubare (“to lie out on guard”), from ex (“out”) + cubare (“to lie down”).
noun
- A keeping watch; a vigil.e.g.“Yseult, who was not in the secret, demanded the reason of this perpetual excubation, and was, for the first time, informed that Tristan had sent for the queen of Cornwall.” — 1814, John Colin Dunlop, The History of Fiction:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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