In ancient Rome, the common practice was, supposedly, to recline on a couch while you ate dinner. The Vulgate Bible, which was compiled in Latin in the 4th Century CE, includes the verse “novissime recumbentibus illis undecim apparuit.” The word “recumbentibus” means to recline, particularly when you’re reclining at a table. English translations of that line usually go something like: “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at table.”
In medieval England, everybody who was educated knew Latin and understood the word “recumbentibus.” They started to use it, as-is, in English. In 1594 in “Dialogue of Proverbs”, John Hayward wrote “Had you some husband, and snapped at him thus, I wise he would give you a recumbentibus.” What he meant by “recumbentibus” was something like popping somebody in the nose and knocking them down.
You probably won’t run into “recumbentibus” because it’s been obsolete since the late 1600s. However, Eoin Colfer actually used it in 2009 when he wrote part 6 of Douglas Adams’ trilogy “Hitchhiker’s Guide the the Galaxy:” “Thor went among them with incalescent eagerness, smashing their guidance systems with his bare fingers, delivering one massive recumbentibus after another, making shards of the casings.”
Pay no attention to that “part 6 of the trilogy” business; Adams himself wrote the first five volumes.
