librocubicularist

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*lewbʰ-
2. Proto-Indo-European*lubʰrós
3. Proto-Italic*luβros
4. Latinliber
5. Englishlibro-
6. Proto-Italic*kubāō
7. Latincubō
8. Latincubiculum
9. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
10. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
11. Latincubiculāri
12. Englishcubicular
13. English todaylibrocubicularist

Coined by the American writer Christopher Morley (1890–1957) in The Haunted Bookshop (1919; see the quotation), probably from libro- (prefix meaning ‘book’) + cubicular (“(obsolete) belonging to a bedchamber”) + -ist (suffix denoting one who engages in a particular type of activity). Cubicular is a learned borrowing from Latin cubiculāris (“relating to a bedroom”), from cubiculum (“small bedroom, bedchamber”) + -āris (“suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining’ to forming adjectives”); and cubiculum is derived from cubāre (the present active infinitive of cubō (“to lie down, recline; to sleep”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-) + -i- (interfix used between stems and suffixes) + -culum (an inflected form of -culus, a variant of -ulus (diminutive suffix)).

Words from the same roots