Etymologically
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urn

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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