From Latin lūcubrātiō ('work by lamplight'), from lūcubrāre ('to work by artificial light'), from lūx ('light'), from PIE *lewk- ('brightness'). Scholarly work done by the lamp's glow — same root as lucid, luminous, lunar, and light itself.
Study or work carried out by lamplight; laborious nocturnal study; a piece of writing produced by such effort, especially one that is overly elaborate or pedantic.
From Latin 'lūcubrātiō' ('work by lamplight, nocturnal study'), from 'lūcubrāre' ('to work by artificial light, to compose at night'), from 'lūx' (genitive 'lūcis', 'light'). Latin 'lūx' derives from PIE *lewk- ('light, brightness'), one of the most prolific roots in Indo-European, which also produced Greek 'leukós' ('white, bright') — source of 'leucocyte' and 'leukemia'; Latin 'lūcēre' ('to shine') — source of 'lucid', 'elucidate', 'translucent'; Latin 'lūmen' ('light') — source of 'luminous', 'illuminate'; Latin 'lūna' ('moon', literally 'the shining one') — source of 'lunar', 'lunatic'; and English 'light' itself via Germanic *leuhtą. The word carries an inherent paradox: it denotes scholarly
The ancient Romans had a specific idiom for writing that reeked of excessive midnight labour: 'olere lucernam' — 'to smell of the lamp.' Cicero used it to criticize Demosthenes's speeches, implying they were over-polished. The charge stuck to 'lucubration' permanently: by the 1700s, calling someone's work a 'lucubration' was