embalm | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

3 entries found.

late 14c., embaumen "to apply balm or ointment; to embalm a corpse," from Old French embaumer, earlier embausmer, "preserve (a corpse) with spices," from assimilated form of en- "in" (see en- (1)) + baume "balm" (see balm) + verbal suffix -er. Balm in Middle English also had a specific sense of "aromatic preparation for embalming dead bodies." The -l- was inserted in English 1500s in imitation of Latin. Related: Embalmed; embalming.

mummify (v.)

1620s, "embalm and dry (a dead body) as a mummy," from French momifier, from momie "mummy," from Medieval Latin mumia (see mummy) + -fier "to make into" (see -fy). Intransitive sense "shrivel or dry up" is by 1864. Related: Mummified; mummifying.

sepulchre (n.)

also sepulcher, c. 1200, sepulcre, "tomb, burial place," especially the cave where Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem (Holy Sepulcher or Saint Sepulcher), from Old French sepulcre, sepulchre, "tomb; the Holy Sepulchre" (11c.), from Latin sepulcrum (also, erroneously, sepulchrum) "grave, tomb, place where a corpse is buried," from root of sepelire "to bury, embalm," originally "to perform rituals on a corpse."

This is held to be from PIE *sepel-io- "to honor," with a cognate in Sanskrit saparyati "to honor, worship." Whited sepulchre "hypocrite" is from Matthew xxiii.27.

Trending words