tombstone

Etymology

It is formed from English tomb + stone.^[2][3][4][5] The noun tomb came into Middle English from Anglo-Norman tumbe and Old French tombe (“tomb, monument”), from Late Latin tumba, from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound, grave”), whose further origin is uncertain and disputed.^[2][3] Stone goes back to Old English stān.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stone coffin or sarcophagus: about 1520, in a record of visitations in the diocese of Lincoln.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED dated the word to 1565, as the cover of a stone coffin or a horizontal stone over a grave;^[6] Merriam-Webster also gives 1565,^[4] and Etymonline the 1560s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The coffin sense died out after the 1560s.^[2] From 1540 the word meant a stone or monument marking a grave, especially a large flat stone laid over it,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford describes the shift from the cover of a stone coffin to a horizontal stone over a grave and then to any memorial over a grave.^[5] Etymonline dates the general sense "gravestone, headstone" to 1711, later extended to any grave marker, including wooden boards cut to the shape of headstones.^[3][6] Figurative use, for something that marks the end of a life or career, is recorded from 1608.^[2] Slang found several likenesses: a tooth, especially a projecting one (1809),^[2][5] a pawn ticket (1864, in Hotten's slang dictionary), from the "in memory of" of an epitaph and the thought that pawned goods rarely come back,^[2][7] and, in 1857, a tumour.^[7] In finance a tombstone is an advertisement listing the firms behind a new issue of shares or bonds (1948);^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1947 and suggests the name comes from its unvarying wording,^[3] while Black's Law Dictionary explains it by the advertisement's traditional black border and plain print.^[8] The verb is recent: in surfing, of a board bobbing upright while the surfer is under water (1998), and in Britain, to jump into the sea from a cliff (2000).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1520 – a stone coffin or sarcophagus (obsolete by 1565).^[2]
• 1540 – a stone or monument marking a grave, especially a flat stone over it.^[2] Merriam-Webster's date for an inscribed stone laid over a grave is 1565.^[4]
• 1608 – figurative use, of something that marks an end.^[2]
• 1711 – any stone or monument over a grave; a gravestone or headstone.^[6][3]
• 1809 – slang, a tooth.^[2]
• 1857 – slang, a tumour.^[7]
• 1864 – British slang, a pawn ticket (obsolete).^[2][7]
• 1948 – finance, an advertisement for a new issue of securities.^[2]
• 1998 – verb, in surfing, of a surfboard standing upright in the water.^[2]
• 2000 – verb, in Britain, to jump into the sea from a cliff or other high point.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gravestone or headstone: Moss had covered the names on the old tombstones.^[9][4][10]
2. An inscribed stone laid flat over a grave.^[4][2]
3. (finance) An advertisement for a new issue of shares or bonds, listing the underwriters and firms involved.^[2][8]
4. (slang) A tooth, especially a projecting or discoloured one.^[2][5]
5. (obsolete, c. 1520–1565) A stone coffin or sarcophagus.^[2][6]

Verb

1. (British) To jump into the sea from a cliff or other high point, entering the water upright.^[2]
2. (surfing) Of a surfboard, to bob upright in the water while the surfer, held by the leash, is below the surface.^[2]

Related words

• tomb
• stone
• entomb

Usage notes

The town of Tombstone in Arizona is said to have been named by prospectors who found silver there in 1877 after being told they would find only their tombstones; the story is recorded by 1880.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin