-ləm noun
( plural incunabu·la -lə)
Etymology: in sense 1, Latin incunabula swaddling clothes, cradle, origin, birthplace, from in- in- (I) + cunae cradle + -bulum (n. suffix); in other senses, from New Latin, back-formation from Latin incunabula — more at cemetery
1. incunabula plural : earliest stages : beginnings, infancy
the resulting symposium … outgrew its incunabula — Times Literary Supplement
2.
a. : a book printed before 1501 — called also cradle book, fifteener
b. : a work of art or of human industry of an early epoch
c. : a record, example, or memento of the early period of an art or human activity
old record catalogs … any of the incunabula of … jazz — Ralph de Toledano
3. : the cocoon of an insect