hearse

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hɜːs/ (UK); /hɝs/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

inherited from Middle English herse,^{[2][3][4][5][1]} borrowed from Old French herce (“harrow; large candlestick”),^{[2][3][6][5][1]} from Medieval Latin hercia,^[2][6][5] from Latin hirpex (“harrow”) (stem hirpic-),^{[2][3][4][6][5]} from Oscan hirpus (“wolf”).^[2][6][5][1] The harrow was supposedly named after the wolf because of its many teeth.^[2][6][5][1] The spelling with -ea- parallels that of heart.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not a vehicle but a frame for candles: a harrow-shaped stand that held tapers and decorations over a coffin or bier at a funeral.^[2][6][5][7] The word appears in Anglo-Latin in the late 13th century and in English about 1300.^[5][6] The OED also records it for a triangular candlestick used in church services such as Tenebrae.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The name moved from the candle frame to other structures built over the dead: a permanent metal frame over a tomb (1552) and a wooden frame that held the pall over the body (1566).^[7][5] By 1601 it could mean the bier, the coffin, or the grave itself.^[7] Finally it was given to the vehicle that carries a body to the grave, in the 1640s according to Etymonline and 1650 according to Barnhart.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1287 – a candlestick used in Easter services.^[7]
• c. 1300 – a frame for candles over a coffin.^[5][6]
• 1552 – a frame over a tomb.^[7]
• 1592 – verb, “to place on a hearse; carry to the grave”.^[3][7]
• 1601 – “bier, coffin, grave”.^[7]
• 1640s – “vehicle for carrying the dead”.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or cemetery.
2. A triangular candlestick used at Tenebrae.
3. A frame over a coffin or tomb, on which epitaphs were hung.
4. (archaic) A coffin or bier.

Verb

1. To put in, or carry in, a hearse.

Word family

• hearselike

Related words

• rehearse
• harrow
• hirsute
• coffin

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press