incunable

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/ɪnˈkjuːnəbəl/

A form of incunabulum — A book, single sheet, or image that was printed before the year 1501 in Europe.

OriginFrench incunable ← Latin incūnābula →
Scrabble 13
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Meanings

nounincunable (plural incunables)

plural incunables

  1. alternativeAlternative form of incunabulum.

    Nerciat rubbed shoulders with D.H. Lawrence, the Large Paper set of de Sade (Illustrated by Austin Osman Spare) jostled an incunable Hermes Trismegistus, and ten different editions of L'Histoire d'O were piquant bedfellows to De la Bodin's Démonomanie des Sorciers.

    1976, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Something Nasty in the Woodshed, Penguin, published 2001, page 435

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
fifteener

Origin

  1. Latinincūnābula“swaddling-clothes, cradle”
  2. Frenchincunable
  3. Englishincunable

From French incunable, from Latin incūnābula (“swaddling-clothes, cradle”).

More words from French, Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

incunable. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incunable

MLA

“incunable.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incunable. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incunable,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incunable.

Source: incunable on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.