Dictionary

corsepresent en · NOUN

Etymology

From corse + present.

Meanings

1. (UK, historical) An offering made to the church at the interment of a dead body.
   • It was anciently usual to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it came to be buried ; and thence it is sometimes called a corsepresent: a term which bespeaks it to have been once a voluntary donation 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

Forms