Incuba (Nightmare)

[Larry Trask]

Douglas Wilson writes:

> From "Lexicon Latinitatis Nederlandicae Medii Aevi" (Johanne W. Fuchs et
> al., eds.) (Brill [Leiden], 1990), p. I 307:

> incuba, ae, m. f. -- ...

> 2. daemon quidam (cf. incubus): CONFL. VOC. incuba, een mare vel een
> meerminne vel elfinne, talis mulier; GEMMA een nachtmerrinne; et vid.
> neptina.

> This is apparently satisfactory semantically and morphologically (1st
> declension, acc. sg. "incubam"); chronologically, I don't know.

Splendid, and many thanks.  I couldn' find this form in even the biggest
Latin dictionaries in our library, but I don't think they cover
medieval Latin.  As for the chronology, I would like the word to have
entered Basque by about the 11th century, in order to allow that /k/
to undergo the regular voicing after /n/.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

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