The Latin word latibulum means a “refuge or hiding place of animals.” It derives from the same root that gives us the English word latent, meaning “hidden.” A 17th-century dictionary defines the now-rare English word latibulate as “privily to hide oneself in a corner.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Latibulum”
Here’s a cool Latin word, latibulum.
It means a hiding place or a den of animals, refuge.
And latibulum comes from the same word that gives us latent, you know, something that’s kind of hidden.
And the reason I got excited about this word was because it seems like so many times when I find a cool Latin word like that,
You can also find in the 17th and 18th century that people have adopted it into English, and the word is letibulate.
Oh, so they did, but it just didn’t catch on.
It didn’t catch, you know, it’s obsolete now.
But letibulate, according to a 1623 dictionary, means privily to hide oneself in a corner.
Privily to hide oneself in the corner.
I’m going to go to that party, but I’m going to letibulate.
Fantastic.
