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Hearse
Definitions
- 1 A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies.
- 2 Alternative form of hearst (“A hind (female deer) in the second or third year of her age”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 a vehicle for carrying a coffin to a church or a cemetery; formerly drawn by horses but now usually a motor vehicle wordnet
- 4 A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument.
"underneath this sable hearse"
- 5 A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave.
"Set down, set down your honourable load, / If honour may be shrouded in a hearse."
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- 6 A carriage or vehicle specially adapted or used for transporting a dead person to the place of funeral or to the grave.
- 1 To enclose in a hearse; to entomb. dated
"I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!"
Etymology
From Middle English herse, hers, herce, from Old French herce, from Medieval Latin hercia, from Latin herpicem, hirpex; ultimately from Oscan 𐌇𐌉𐌓𐌐𐌖𐌔 (hirpus, “wolf”), a reference to the teeth, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff, rigid, bristled”). The Oscan term is related to Latin hīrsūtus (“bristly, shaggy”), whence English hirsute. Doublet of herse (“kind of gate”).
From Middle English herse, hers, herce, from Old French herce, from Medieval Latin hercia, from Latin herpicem, hirpex; ultimately from Oscan 𐌇𐌉𐌓𐌐𐌖𐌔 (hirpus, “wolf”), a reference to the teeth, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff, rigid, bristled”). The Oscan term is related to Latin hīrsūtus (“bristly, shaggy”), whence English hirsute. Doublet of herse (“kind of gate”).
See also for "hearse"
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Unscramble this word: hearse