Meanings
- uncountableThe act or posture of reclining on a couch, as practiced by the ancients at meals.
Accubation, or lying down at meals, was a gesture used by very many Nations.
1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC1 more example
Accubation was introduced in Rome after the first Punic War (264-241 BC). In Greece accubation was unknown at the time of the Homeric poems (cf. Od. i. 145 ἑξείης ἕζοντο κατὰ κλισμούς τε θρόνους τε, XV. 134 ἑζέσθην δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔπειτα κατὰ κλισμούς τε θρόνους τε), but afterwards the Greeks and Romans adopted this Oriental fashion and lay very nearly flat on their breasts while taking their meals, or in a semi-sitting posture supported on the left elbow.
1902, Journal of Biblical literature, volumes 21-22, page 64
Origin
Translations
French accubation
- accubationthe act or posture of reclining on a couch
German Akkubation, Akkubition
- Akkubationthe act or posture of reclining on a couch
- Akkubitionthe act or posture of reclining on a couch
Polish akubacja
- akubacjathe act or posture of reclining on a couch
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with accubation
Cite this entry
accubation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accubation
“accubation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accubation. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “accubation,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accubation.
Source: accubation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.