sepulchre

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2010 is: sepulchre • \SEP-ul-ker\  • noun 1 : a place of burial : tomb 2 : a receptacle for religious relics especially in an altar Examples: "The distant noises in the streets were gradually hushed; the house was quiet as a sepulchre; the dead of night was coffined in the silent city." (Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit) Did you know? "Sepulchre" (also spelled "sepulcher") first appeared in Middle English around the beginning of the 13th century. It was originally spelled "sepulcre," a spelling taken from Anglo-French. Like many words borrowed into English from French, "sepulchre" has roots in Latin. In Latin, "sepulchre" is "sepulcrum," a noun that is derived from the verb "sepelire," which means "to bury." "Sepultus," the past participle of "sepelire," gives us -- also by way of Anglo-French -- the related noun "sepulture," which is a synonym for "burial" and "sepulchre." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.