LUCUBRATE

[Dr. Goodword]

• lucubrate •

Pronunciation: lu-kyu-brayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: 1. To work late at night or into the night using artificial light. 2. To write a scholarly discourse or other work in a detailed, scholarly way; to write long and laboriously.

Notes: Again we have a fascinating word under threat of extinction. As we are more and more often forced to take work home with us at night or push the time we spend on our own activities later into the night, the opportunities for using this Good Word are actually increasing. So, we should not completely lose sight of it. This word comes with a full complement of derivations: lucubration is the noun, lucubratory is the adjective and a lucubrator is someone who loves working into the wee hours.

In Play: Today's Good Word originally was related to working by some form of artificial light (see Word History), and it is this sense that appeals to Dr. Goodword the most: "Gee, fellows, I would love to go to the movies but I'm afraid I have to lucubrate over a term paper due tomorrow." However, since scholars (apparently) were the only ones who worked diligently into the night at one time, the word is now used in the US to refer to writing in a detailed, scholarly fashion: "I hate to just ignore his memo after he has obviously lucubrated on it for days."

Word History: Today's Good Word is based on lucubratus, the past participle of Latin lucubrare "to work at night by lamplight". The root comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk- "light, shine" which somehow turned into English light. Now, this English word is a distant cousin of Russian luch "ray" (from Old Slavic leuk-ti), Latin lux (luk-s), and the Christian name of our Brazilian editor, Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira. Another word leuk- turned into is Greek leukos "white, clear", which we can see in our medical term for the white blood cell, leukocyte, and the disease thereof, leukemia. With the suffix -n, the same root went on to become Latin luna "moon", the root of our words lunar and lunatic, someone once thought to bay at the moon. (Today's Good Word came to us from Brian Gockley, the owner of the mellifluous voice that brought to light Dr. Goodword's podcasts.)

[Slava]

Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I lucubrated weak and weary.

Hmm, great word, but it doesn't always fit, does it?

[LukeJavan8]

It was a dark and stormy, lucubrating night....

[Philip Hudson]

Now I know a six-bit word for "burning the midnight oil." Be sure I won't waste it. I will use it at every opportunity.

[wurdpurrson]

I've always been self-described as a night owl. (*) Now I've come home to my real persona, a lucubrator. Love it! It sounds ever-so-much more impressive.
(*) Yes, there are some day owls. But the norm seems to be the nocturnal ones who scare people and eat little creatures on a dark night.

I wonder: if owls hunt on a bright, moonlit night, could that make them a kind of lucubrating creature, even though moonlight is a natural phenomenon? Nah. Probably too much of a stretch.

[LukeJavan8]

People tell me they love the morning. I joke back that if
I have seen one sunrise, I've seen them all. I too am a
confirmed night-owl, or, as we now call ourselves,
"lucubrators". Onward!

[Perry Lassiter]

God too is a night owl. That's how he created the world. Aft each act, Genesis 1 declares, " the EVENING and the morning, the first day," etc.

[LukeJavan8]

I never thought of it that way, good point.

[Slava]

I never thought of it that way, good point.

I guess that's a good example of something dawning upon you, eh?

[LukeJavan8]

One of the few I've witnessed in decades.

[wurdpurrson]

Mornings can be lovely - if one waits up for them. I'm never cognizant enough to enjoy them if I MUST get up for them very early. In jobs where I was expected to be at my post by 8:00 a.m., I became accomplished at faking alertness and functioning by rote until such time as I began to really wake up. That was rarely before 10 or 10:30 a.m. It usually worked.

[LukeJavan8]

Me too....and at least a dozen cups of coffee to
appreciate the sunrise. Sunsets: I'll take them any
day.

[Perry Lassiter]

Appropriate application for Easter Eve. I think they should ban sunrise services and replace them with observance of the walk to Emmaus about 4:00 p.m.

[wurdpurrson]

Or maybe 5:00? Or maybe at sunset - sunset IS a nice time of day.

[LukeJavan8]

I second both your proposals. Right On! ! ! !