Etymology

incubate

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Today it means: To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions. Full definition →

Latin incubātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromincubātus
  2. English todayincubate

First attested in 1641; borrowed from Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfect passive participle of incubō (“to hatch”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + cubō (“to lie”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.