obituary

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An article in a newspaper about a person who has recently died, often describing their life.

   I read his obituary in this morning's paper.

2. 2
   adj

   Relating to notices of people who have died.

   She works as the paper's obituary editor.

PIE word *h₁epi Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin obituārius (“obituary”) + English -ary (suffix denoting something relating to another thing or used in a place). Obituārius is derived from Latin obitus (“act of approaching or going toward, an approach; act of going down, setting; of the sun: sunset; death; destruction, downfall, ruin”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives and agent nouns); while obitus is a noun use of the perfect passive participle of obeō (“to go to meet, go towards; (figurative) to die, pass away, perish; (astronomy) to set”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘toward’) + eō (“…

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