Meanings
plural librocubicularists
- humorousrareA person who reads in bed.
To be clear, I don't only read on planes: I'm a librocubicularist. I love reading in bed.
2024, Liezille Jean Jacobs, “Preface”, in Rocklands: On Becoming the First Generation of Black Psychologists in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa: African Minds, →ISBN, page xvi3 more examples
"Miss Chapman, you take the book up with you and read it in bed if you want to. Are you a librocubicularist?" Titania looked a little scandalized. "It's all right, my dear," said Helen. "He only means are you fond of reading in bed. I've been waiting to hear him work that word into the conversation. He made it up, and he's immensely proud if it."
1919, Christopher Morley, “Roger Raids the Ice-box”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 190I always smoke an acre of tobacco in bed while reading the most delightful book for all librocubicularists. (I don't think there is such as word as librocubicularist, but Mr. Christopher Morley used it to good advantage in "The Haunted Bookshop" and it has a terrifying sound to the uninitiated ear.)
1923 January 27, John S. Brennan, “Myself”, in Leo R. Ward [et al.], editors, The Notre Dame Scholastic, volume LVI, number 13, Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Students’ Office, page 409, column 2Ubiquitous as pet owners are, the librocubicularists outnumber them. While dog and cat people can readily be identified by a certain indefinable aura that hovers about them, the "libro" can't be detected until it's too late. […] One night the libro will turn to his loved one and announce that he thinks he will "read for a while." That may well be the beginning of the end. […] The librocubicularist, or reader in bed, should always seek out a mate with the same malady.
1957, Phyllis I. Rosenteur, “Between the Sheets with Both Sexes”, in Morpheus and Me: The Complete Book of Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls Company, →OCLC, page 107
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*lewbʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*lubʰrós
- Proto-Italic*luβros
- Latinliber
- Englishlibro-
- Proto-Italic*kubāō
- Latincubō
- Latincubiculum
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Latincubiculāri
- Englishcubicular
- Englishlibrocubicularist
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)).
More words from Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish sängyssä lukija
- sängyssä lukijaperson who reads in bed
French librocubiculariste
- librocubicularisteperson who reads in bed
Spanish librocubicularista
- librocubicularistaperson who reads in bed
Cite this entry
librocubicularist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/librocubicularist
“librocubicularist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/librocubicularist. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “librocubicularist,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/librocubicularist.
Source: librocubicularist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.