cemetery
pronunciation
How to pronounce cemetery in British English:
UK [ˈsemətri]
How to pronounce cemetery in American English:
US [ˈseməteri]
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- Noun:
- a tract of land used for burials
Word Origin
- cemetery
- cemetery: [14] Not surprisingly for a word having associations with death, cemetery’s origins are euphemistic. It comes via late Latin coemētērium from Greek koimētérion, which originally meant ‘dormitory’ (it was a derivative of the verb koiman ‘put to sleep’); it was apparently early Greek Christian writers who first applied the word to burial grounds.
- cemetery (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French cimetiere "graveyard" (12c.), from Late Latin coemeterium, from Greek koimeterion "sleeping place, dormitory," from koiman "to put to sleep," keimai "I lie down," from PIE root *kei- "to lie, rest," also "bed, couch," hence secondary sense of "beloved, dear" (cognates: Greek keisthai "to lie, lie asleep," Old Church Slavonic semija "family, domestic servants," Lithuanian šeima "domestic servants," Lettish sieva "wife," Old English hiwan "members of a household," higid "measure of land," Latin cunae "a cradle," Sanskrit Sivah "propitious, gracious"). Early Christian writers were the first to use it for "burial ground," though the Greek word also had been anciently used in reference to the sleep of death. An Old English word for "cemetery" was licburg.
Example
- 1. Even higher up is a small cemetery .
- 2. The wolf rose from my breast and made for the cemetery .
- 3. As we drove past the cemetery , I saw something really creepy .
- 4. I wanted to see a certain jewish cemetery I 'd not been able to find the day before .
- 5. Today bouazizi 's body lies in a modest cemetery on the outskirts of sidi bouzid .