funeral

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a ceremony at which a dead person is buried or cremated

   Hundreds of people will attend my funeral.

2. 2
   noun

   A ceremony to honor and remember a deceased person, often distinguished from a memorial service by the presence of the body of the deceased.

   Many mourners turned up at the local artist's funeral to pay homage.

3. 3
   adj

   Alternative spelling of funereal.

   All was funeral gloom and hope never whispered its cheering promises there.

4. 4
   noun

   A funeral sermon.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French funerailles pl (“funeral rites”), from Medieval Latin fūnerālia (“funeral rites”), originally neuter plural of Late Latin fūnerālis (“having to do with a funeral”), from Latin fūnus (“funeral, death, corpse”), origin unknown, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to die”). Singular and plural used interchangeably in English until circa 1700. The adjective funereal is first attested 1725, by influence of Middle French funerail, from Latin funereus, from funus. First attested in 1437. Displaced native Old English līcþeġnung (literally “dead body service…