epitaph

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an inscription on a grave or monument commemorating the person buried there

   The weathered epitaph named the sailor and the year he died.

2. 2
   noun

   a short statement that sums up a dead person, a finished era, or something that has failed

   The abandoned station stood as an epitaph to the failed railway scheme.

Through Old French and Latin epitaphium from Greek epitaphios, 'funeral; over a tomb,' formed from epi, 'upon,' and taphos, 'tomb.' The figurative sense extends a grave inscription to any final summary of what has ended.

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