incubus means an evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep. It carries an Arena rating of 1860, earned across 19 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, incubus ranks #37 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #399 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #970 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,532 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
incubus is pronounced /ˈɪŋ.kjʊ.bəs/.
Why “incubus” is a great word
An evil spirit or demon in male form, believed in folklore to lie upon sleepers, especially to have sexual intercourse with women as they sleep, and to cause feelings of oppression or nightmares. From Late Latin incubus ("nightmare spirit"), from Latin incubō ("nightmare, one who lies down upon"), from incubāre ("to lie upon, to hatch"), from in- ("on, upon") + cubāre ("to lie down"). First attested in English c. 1200. Unlike "succubus," its female counterpart, or "nightmare," a more general term for a terrifying dream, the incubus carries the specific, gendered menace of a supernatural sexual predator. It is the palpable pressure on the chest in the dead of night, the cold sweat and paralyzed limb upon waking, and the silent, shameful visitation that leaves no physical trace—the ancient personification of sleep's most intimate violation, where the body remembers a touch the mind cannot quite grasp.
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”)).
noun
- An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.
- A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.e.g.“it increaseth fearful dreams, incubus, night-walking, crying out, and much unquietness […] .” — Burton with W.H. Gass, The Anatomy of Melancholy, NYRB Classics ser. (New York: New York Review Books, 2001, orig. 1932), vol. 1, p. 249
- Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.e.g.“Again he felt the impulse of flight: but his body was a dry dead incubus that refused to obey his volition.” — August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, "The Treader of the Dust"
- One of various of parasitic insects, especially subfamily Aphidiinae.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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