cerement

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a shroud or waxed cloth in which a dead body is wrapped for burial, often used in the plural

   The body was wrapped in a linen cerement before burial.

From French cirement ("waxing or wax dressing"), from cirer ("to wax"), ultimately from Latin cera ("wax"). Burial cloths were treated with wax or similar substances, which led to the literary sense of a funerary shroud.

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