burial

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈber.i.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English biriel, a mistaken singular of buriels,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} inherited from Old English byrgels (“tomb, burial place”), from byrgan (“to bury”) (see bury) and the suffix -els,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *burgisli-,^[3][2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *bhergh- (“to hide, protect”).^[3] The old suffix, also in riddle, became obsolete and was taken for a plural, and the word was later felt as bury with -al.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tomb or grave: about 1200 in Etymonline, about 1250 in the OED.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Trench notes that it once meant the place of burial, as in Wycliffe's “the sepulcre of the man of God”, and only later the act.^[8] The act of burying, a funeral, is from the late 13th century in Etymonline, 1453 in the OED.^[3][7] Figurative burials are from 1603,^[7] and the depositing of anything under earth or water from before 1626.^[7] Compounds such as burial ground are from the 19th century.^[7][3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a tomb.^[3]
• late 13th century – the act of burying.^[3]
• 1453 – interment.^[7]
• 1603 – figurative burial.^[7]
• 1864 – burial chamber, burial cloth.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of burying, especially the interment of a dead body; a funeral.
2. (obsolete) A grave or tomb.

Word family

• reburial
• burial ground
• burial mound

Related words

• bury
• borough
• riddle

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker