Burial

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbɛɹɪəl/

Definitions

1. The act of placing a dead body in the ground or a tomb as part of funeral practices
2. The process involved in interring a deceased individual's body in the earth or a grave site as part of honoring their memory
3. A ceremonial act that includes the entombment or inhumation of a person who has died, often accompanied by rites

Etymology: The modern word "burial" looks like "bury" plus the common suffix "-al," as in "refusal" or "arrival," but that analysis is misleading. The noun actually grew out of an Old English word, "byrġels," formed from "byrġan" ("to bury") and the suffix "-els." Over time, speakers in Middle English heard that ending as a plural, so the form "biriels" was treated as plural and a singular "biriel" was back-formed from it. The -al we see today later became the normal way to end the word. The result is a word whose ending was misread twice: once as a plural, and then again as the familiar suffix "-al." Only the first step was a genuine mistake of grammar; the second simply made the word look like its neighbors, so modern speakers assume it was always built that way.

Synonyms: interment, entombment, inurnment, sepulture, committal

Antonyms: exhumation, disinterment, resurrection, retrieval, recovery