Dictionary

obit en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈɒbɪt/ (UK)
• /ˈəʊbɪt/ (UK)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman obit, Middle French obit, and their source, Latin obitus (“going down; death”), from obīre (“to go down, to die”).

Meanings

1. (archaic) The death of a person.
2. (historical) A mass or other service held for the soul of a dead person.
   • Medieval wills often contained bequests to pay for the singing of special (non-perpetual) masses on the testator's behalf. These obits, as they were called, combined alms for the poor with masses for the dead. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 582:
3. A record of a person's death.

Forms

Deriveds

post-obit

obit en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈəʊbɪt/ (UK)
• /əˈbɪt/ (UK)

Etymology

Clipping of obituary.

Meanings

1. (colloquial) An obituary.
   • So a proposed US series, called Circling the Drain, is certainly breaking new ground. It involves a 25-year-old reporter (played by Caprica's Alessandra Torresani) who is reassigned from a paper's style section to its obits desk. 2010 December 9, Roy Greenslade, “Don't laugh - new TV show is set on a newspaper obits desk”, in The Guardian:

Forms