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Meaning of accubitum | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B2

Definitions

  1. A bench or sofa for reclining at a table; often used by ancient Roman and Greek nobility.
  2. A round dining table.
  3. A dining hall or refectory.

Examples

“This may have been an accubitum with magical qualities of procreation for sterile husbands who slept on this stone.”
“Seated on the accubitum used at the Last Supper, the disciples are undoing their sandals in preparation for the Washing of the Feet.”
“For the Song, all these are also places for sexual love: the beloved has recalled her embraces of the "king" on the "couch", and elsewhere in scripture the same word is used for something on which lovemaking may occur (most dramatically, it is on an accubitum that Haman plans to rape Esther in Esth. 7:8); and "Solomon's bed" is mentioned in the context of preparations for his marriage.”
“In early medieval Rome the Liber pontificalis designates in different ways the place where banquets were held, such as the Basilica Vigilii, where the Emperor Constans II (641-668), when visiting the Lateran, could wash and eat, while accubita (dining sofas) were placed by Leo III into an elegant domus near the Basilica of San Pietro.”
“The circular attic is roofed with a dome, and inside it the oval table - the accubitum - is set, and the disciples around it are untying their shoes.”
“This is the interpretation of He is in the bosom of His Father ; for the order led to this ; for they were reclining round an accubitum, that is to say, a circular table ; and the first at the table was our Lord ; but after Him and on His right Simeon; and [it was] of necessity in a round form like a circle.”
“Half share of dining room on second story, fourth of open air apartment above the accubitum with half of porch, pylon, terrace, passage way and bake shop.”
“The data seems to be consistent with other sources. Around the mid fifth century, for example, we may read of the construction of baths by Bishop Nostrianus and that of a refectory (accubitum), at the episcopal palace, by Bishop Vincent.”
“The Gesta episcoporum neapolitanorum tells us that Bishop Vincentius of Naples (554-578) "built the baptistery of the minor font within the episcopium and the accubitum next to it decorated with great care." Remains of this "accubitum" or dining hall were discovered during nineteenth-century excavations in the sacristy of the Neapolitan cathedral.”

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.
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