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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

mortuary en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɔɹt͡ʃəˌwɛɹi/ (General-American)
  • (US) audio
  • /ˈmɔːt͡ʃʊəɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˈmɔːt͡ʃwəɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Middle English mortuary, from Anglo-Norman mortuarie (“gift to a parish priest from a deceased parishioner”), from Medieval Latin mortuārium (“receptacle for the dead; mortuary”), neuter form of mortuārius (“of or pertaining to the dead”), from Latin mortuus, perfect passive participle of morior (“to die”).

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Of or relating to death or a funeral; funereal.
    • The leftwise action aims at what drifts out of the nunka domain of the nefarious. Similarly for mortuary arrangements, what is leftwise is more momentous than what is rightwise. 2006, Arne Røkkum, Nature, ritual, and society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands, page 151:

Deriveds

abortuary · nonmortuary · mortuary sword · mortuary chapel

mortuary en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɔɹt͡ʃəˌwɛɹi/ (General-American)
  • (US) audio
  • /ˈmɔːt͡ʃʊəɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˈmɔːt͡ʃwəɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Middle English mortuary, from Anglo-Norman mortuarie (“gift to a parish priest from a deceased parishioner”), from Medieval Latin mortuārium (“receptacle for the dead; mortuary”), neuter form of mortuārius (“of or pertaining to the dead”), from Latin mortuus, perfect passive participle of morior (“to die”).

Meanings

  1. A place where dead bodies are stored prior to burial or cremation; broadly, synonym of funeral home.
    • It was anciently usual to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it came to be buried 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
  2. (historical) A sort of ecclesiastical heriot, a customary gift claimed by, and due to, the minister of a parish on the death of a parishioner.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
mortuaries Number=Plur lexicographic

Coordinates

lich-house · morgue · deadhouse

Deriveds

mortuary science · mortuary pole

Relateds

lavatory (room in a mortuary where corpses are placed under a rinsing shower) · soulscot · mortician

Synonyms

soulscot