This week’s theme
Words one letter apart

This week’s words
mucid
lucid
sallow
fallow
incubus

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(IN-kyuh-buhs)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An oppressive burden.
2. A nightmare.
3. A male demon believed to have sεx with sleeping women.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin incubare (to lie upon), from in- (upon) + cubare (to lie). Earliest documented use: 1275.

NOTES:

The same Latin root incubare (to lie upon) gave us incubate (as in eggs) and the incubus. The counterpart of an incubus is a succubus, a female spirit said to visit sleeping men. That word comes from Latin succubare (to lie under), from sub- (under) + cubare (to lie).
Why didn’t the incubus and succubus keep each other busy and leave the rest of us alone?

USAGE:

“’It is not weakening the Conservative Party at all, weak as it now is. It is ridding it of the incubus that has been destroying it,’ [Dominic Grieve] insisted.”
Millie Cooke, et al; Sacked Jenrick Defects to Reform and Attacks Tories; The Independent (London, UK); Jan 16, 2026.

See more usage examples of incubus in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: