lucubration

From the Latin lūcubrātiō (“nighttime study”), from lūcubrō (“work by artificial light”), from lūx (“light”).

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

lucubration (countable and uncountable, plural lucubrations)

1. Intense and prolonged study or meditation; especially, late at night.
   • 1776, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, chapter III

     The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration.

2. The product of such study; often, writings.
   • 1850, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

     With his own ghostly voice, he had exhorted me, on the sacred consideration of my filial duty and reverence towards him,—who might reasonably regard himself as my official ancestor,—to bring his mouldy and moth-eaten lucubrations before the public.

   • 1868, The Road to Peace — a Solid, Durable Peace, by Carl Schurz

     There is General Blair. True, his lucubrations on negro supremacy are ludicrous enough, but it will not do to speak lightly of his ability. There is power in his organization.