urn

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English urne,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin urna (“jar, vessel of baked clay; water-jar; vessel for the ashes of the dead”),^[6][3][2][7] perhaps through Old French urne;^[8][9] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 13th century.^[10] The Latin word was also used for a ballot box and for drawing lots.^[3] It is probably from an earlier Latin *urcna, related to urceus (“pitcher, jug”),^{[3][7][4][11][8]} and goes back to the same source as Ancient Greek ὕρχη (húrkhē, “earthen vessel”).^[7][3][5] Beekes takes the Greek word to be Pre-Greek, and thinks Latin may have borrowed urna and urceus from Greek, or both languages from a Mediterranean language;^[12] Merriam-Webster calls it probably of non-Indo-European origin.^[13] Another theory, which the OED gives and Weekley queries, connects it with ūrō (“to burn”), as a vessel of burnt clay.^[6][14][3] The Latin word is also the source of urna, urna and urne.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vase used to keep the ashes of the dead: 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,^[6] which Barnhart dates about 1385.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the funeral vase the word spread to other vessels.^[6][11] From 1513, in Gavin Douglas's Virgil, it was the vessel from which lots were drawn or into which votes were cast,^[6][11] and in 1888 a ballot box.^[6] The general sense of a rounded vase with a circular base is recorded from 1640,^[6][7] a carved ornament in that shape from 1653,^[6] and a water-pitcher from 1609.^[6] Poets used it for the source of a river (1726),^[6] and in Scots for a tomb or grave.^[15][16] The tea urn, a large metal vessel with a tap, is recorded from the 18th century,^[11] and urn alone for it from 1781.^[6] In botany it has been the spore case of a moss since 1840.^[6][17] Johnson (1755) defined it as any vessel whose mouth is narrower than its body.^[9] A verb urn, to put ashes in an urn, appears before 1625, in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen;^[6] it is now archaic, replaced by inurn.^[13]

Timeline

• 1374 – a vase for the ashes of the dead, in Chaucer.^[6]
• 1513 – a vessel for lots or votes.^[6]
• 1609 – a water-pitcher.^[6]
• before 1625 – verb, to put (ashes) in an urn.^[6]
• 1640 – a rounded vase with a circular base.^[6]
• 1653 – a carved ornament shaped like a vase.^[6]
• 1726 – the source of a river.^[6]
• 1781 – a tea urn.^[6]
• 1840 – in botany, the spore case of a moss.^[6]
• 1888 – a ballot box.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vase, usually with a rounded body and a foot or pedestal, used as an ornament or for holding things.^[13][17][6]
2. Such a vessel used to hold the ashes of a cremated person: They kept their grandfather's urn on the mantelpiece.^[17][13][6]
3. A large closed metal vessel with a tap and often a heater, for making and serving tea or coffee.^[17][13]
4. A carved ornament in the shape of a vase.^[13][6]
5. (botany) The spore-bearing capsule of a moss.^[17][6]
6. A vessel for holding lots or ballots, especially in Roman history.^[6][13]

Verb

1. (archaic) To put in an urn; to inurn.^[13][6]

Word family

• urnlike
• inurn
• urnfield

Related words

• urceolate

Usage notes

The Scots and dialect urn, to pain or torture, and the West Country urn, to run, are unrelated words.^[15][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins