incunabulan.
/ɪnkjuːˈnabjʊlə/ With plural agreement.
1. The earliest stages or first traces in the development of anything.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > beginning > [noun] > the first part or beginning > the earliest stage(s)
beginningc1200
calendsc1374
crepusculum1398
childhood1549
infancy1555
rudiments1566
primordium1577
primitives1602
inchoation1652
inceptive1728
incunabula1824
baby step1825
inchoate1845
incipiency1858
incipience1864
1824 T. De Quincey Falsification Hist. Eng. in London Mag. Dec. 627/2 Here they fancy that they can detect the incunabula of the revolutionary spirit.
1832 T. De Quincey James's Hist. Charlemagne in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 790/2 Here, too, we behold in their incunabula..the existing kingdoms of Christendom.
1864 J. Martineau Ess., Rev., & Addr. (1891) II. 476 The Gospel is silent respecting the incunabula of the Master's life.
2. (With singular incunabulum.) Books produced in the infancy of the art of printing; spec. those printed before 1500.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > early printed book(s) > [noun]
fifteener1830
incunabula1861
incunable1886
cradle-books1902
1861 J. M. Neale Notes on Dalmatia i. 9 What are Incunabula? you ask. It is the name that Germans give to books printed before 1500.
1866 Sat. Rev. 21 Sept. 305 The facsimile of a most interesting ‘incunabulum’.
1885 Evening Standard 11 Apr. 1/1 ‘Tall’ copies and ‘large paper’ copies, incunabula and Elzevirs.
Categories »
3. Ornithology. The breeding-places of a species of bird.
Derivatives
incuˈnabular adj. of or pertaining to early printed books.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > kind of book > early printed book(s) > [adjective]
incunabular1889
1889 Athenæum 15 June 752/1 Each paragraph..decorated with an imposing and quite incunabular ⁋.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
<
n.1824