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• funeral •

Pronunciation: fyu-nê-rêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Burial ceremony, usually comprising a sermon, sometimes a wake, and a procession to the grave. If it is the burial of a person of repute, there is often a period of lying in state. 2. Cessation of existence, catastrophe.

Notes: Today's word is a sad and somber one but one heard often recently in connection with Queen Elizabeth II's burial. Its adjective is funereal. The rarely used verb is funeralize.; otherwise, it is a lexical orphan.

In Play: When Queen Elizabeth passed away, her funeral services included a wake, lying in state at several places, a procession, and a service before burial—all over a period of 12 days. The entire ceremony was telecast around the world and watched by hundreds of millions. The second sense of today's word is simply its figurative use: "If you contradict the boss in tomorrow's office meeting, it'll be your funeral."

Word History: Today's most topical Good Word is a trimmed version of Late Latin funeralis "funereal", the adjective for funus, funeris "funeral", which Latin inherited from Proto-Indo-European dheu-/dhou- "to die". The [dh], like [bh] in initial position, often became [f], like Latin fornax "furnace" but English burn. Dutch dood, English dead, German tot, Norwegian død, Welsh dyn "person, mortal", Irish duine "person, mortal", Armenian diak "corpse", Lithuanian dvesti "(slang) 'to croak', die"—all descend from the same PIE word. (Now let's all thank newcomer Brita Edholm, another contributor who lives in Sweden, for today's quite topical Good Word.)

Excellent. So while we are on this morbid discussion, can anyone explain the difference between a catafalque and a bier? And then a pyre? The pyr... bit obviously relates to burning, but is otherwise a bier (to which it is fairly closely related in sound anyway). Am I right? So is here some semantic connection or just a coincidental sonic one?

My quick take on this would be thus: a bier is a structure to raise and hold the casket, while a catafalque is a moveable bier. Bier is related to barrow, as in the kind of burial place where Bilbo got Sting. No fire needed, unless you're making a sword.

Thanks Slava. But if bier is related to barrow, then presumably a bier, like a catafalque, is also moveable?

If you put wheels on a barrow, it becomes a wheelbarrow. If you put wheels on a bier, it becomes a catafalque.

I also conflated those two meanings of barrow. Mea culpa. Bilbo's barrow has a different pedigree, related to the berg of mountain.

In related news, there's a third meaning for barrow, castrated male swine. Need a good insult no one will understand?