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Our last note, about Lincoln's death, transitions us to our next theme, Places of Burial. tumulus (plural tumuli) – an ancient burial mound Two examples follow. Our first is a literal usage, older, and floridly long-winded. Our second is more modern and is nicely figurative. One can imagine tossing out the word this way in ordinary speech.
– George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss … the string-tied packages of laundry were stacked, shirts-uppermost where they formed a blue tumulus reaching almost to the roof. – James Herriot, All Things Wise and Wonderful | ||
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From Latin carnalis relating to flesh. My understanding is that these terms convey the sense of "disgusting", particularly "disgusting smell". charnel house – a building or vault in which corpses or bones were piled [originally, a place for the bones thrown up when digging new graves in old burial ground] charnel – a charnel house; also, adj.: of the dead
– Joseph Heller, Catch-22 My fancy grew charnel. I talked "of worms, of tombs, and epitaphs." I was lost in reveries of death, and the idea of premature burial held continual possession of my brain. – Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial | |||
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Let us not forget the positive aspect of the stem, related to "carnal desire." The "scent of flesh" can go both ways... RJA | |||
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Our last quote, from Edgar Allan Poe's The Premature Burial, reminds me of a recent word-of-the-day: taphephobia, the fear of being buried alive. In that same spirit I'll unearth another word in the same Poetic vein, a cryptic word very rarely used. Its appearances are almost exclusively in word-lists (including references to the Scripps Spelling Bee, in which it was the 1996 winning word). vivisepulture – an act or instance of burying someone alive
It is not at first very obvious why mere solitude should be such a real and dreadful punishment. … It required experience and a long series of hideous experiments in vivi-sepulture, to make us realise that the human brain – and more especially a thinking one – has that strange quality of self-consumption. … [S]olitary imprisonment prolonged beyond certain limits is impossible except at a terrible cost. The price is that the prison becomes the antechamber to the madhouse, or leads even to the tomb. – George Ives, A History of Penal Methods (1917) | |||
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We just talked of vivisepulture, or burial-while-still-alive. Believe it or not, there is another word, in that same gruesome vein, referring to a kind of cremation-while-still-alive. suttee – a Hindu widow who immolates herself on the funeral pyre [see below] with her husband's body; also, such immolation [Some say from a root meaning "true", akin to English sooth and forsooth; some say akin to essence and ultimately, to to be. Perhaps all these are related?] Two prominent authors provide our examples, one literal, the other figurative and very deep.
– John Updike, The Widows of Eastwick His men anyway assumed and accepted this; after the sleepless night, the tenseness, the holiday, the suttee of volition's surrender, they were almost at the pitch where they might die for him, if occasion arose. – William Faulkner, Light in August [from Greek pur fire]
– Bernard Cornwell, Agincourt ghaut; ghat – a passage or steps leading to the river-side; hence, a landing-place, the place of a ford or ferry ghat or burning-ghat – a level spot at the top of a river ghat on which Hindus burn their dead
– Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (Man Booker Prize) | |||
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they might be | |||
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That's why I love Faulkner: "...the suttee of volition's surrender,...." He mesmerizes me. | |||
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This is why I love the Anglosphere: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours." -- General Sir Charles James Napier RJA | |||
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The most interesting form of today's word is its adjective form sepulchral, listed last. sepulcher; sepulchre – a burial vault (also, a receptacle for sacred relics, especially in an altar). verb: to place into a sepulcher; inter
– opening words of Harry S Truman's letter, to his wife Bess, on becoming President on FDR's death. Dec. 28, 1945 (And by the way, my Harry S Truman is not a typo. The "S" did not stand for anything longer, and had no period after it.) noun only: sepulture – the act of interment; burial (also, "sepulcher" (noun), as above) adj. sepulchral – of or relating to a sepulcher, or, suggestive of the grave; funereal
– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World | |||
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Vivisepulture for live burial in earth, suttee for live cremation... Don't forget the water ones, depending if one is out at sea or shorebound: plankwalking and being concretely overshod.  While I'm not surprised it's very rare, surprised at least a few examples of "vivisepulture" haven't appeared in a few archeological or historical documents. There were Christian ascetics who practiced it, the East Asian rite of creating Living Buddhas this way, and of course the Egyptian tendancy to shove the pharaohs' wives & slaves in with them. Maybe someone lost that page from the guild's book of jargon and cant? By the way, while going through the intellectual exercise of trying to recall anything that could be deemed a "live wind burial" (finishing the classical elements), was reminded of the routine a la Fay Wray & the myth of Andromeda. Anyone know if some group ever really did tie out victims as sacrifices for imagined gods or monsters? Or if there was a term for it?This message has been edited. Last edited by: KB, | |||
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Some recent documentaries have shown mummies discovered at high altitudes in the Andes, apparently the remains of young girls sacrificed to the gods. Whether they were left there alive, since they were drugged, is still a question to be resolved. | ||
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"Ashes to ashes; dust to dust." To remember today's ash-word, cinerary, think of the word incinerate from the same "ash" root. (Oddly, the word cinder is completely unrelated.) cinerary – pertaining to ashes, esp. of cremated body [usually used in referring to a cinerary urn]
– Cullen Murphy, Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America columbarium – a building with niches, in its walls, for cinerary urns; also, such a niche [from Latin meaning "dove". What's the connection? Well, another meaning of columbarium is "a pigeon-house or dove-cote"]
. . ."Pardon me?" . . ."Buried or burned?" . . ."Burned, I guess." . . ."I have some photographs here of various styles of urn." . . ."The best will be good enough." . . ."Would you require a niche in our columbarium or do you prefer to keep the remains at home?" . . ."What you said first." – Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One [in an attorney's office:] … the usual intimidating atmosphere of such places: the learned volumes, … the mournful box-files of dead cases ranged high around the room like the urns of an overpopulated columbarium. The old solicitor looked severely up. – John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman Apparently, in ancient roman buildings a niche for a cinerary urn is called an ambitus. For the middle ages ambitus (or the alternative term enfeu) means a larger niche to hold a coffin. I've found these two words in specialized architectural dictionaries, but not in OED or other general dictionaries.This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, | |||
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