Cerement

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A material or garment specifically crafted to conceal a body during interment; it serves as a covering for the deceased to ensure dignity in burial rites; usually associated with funerary customs and traditions surrounding death
2. A cloth or garment used to wrap a dead body before burial, traditionally designed to cover and protect the corpse during funeral ceremonies
3. Fabric specifically made for enveloping the deceased as part of burial practices, ensuring the body is respectfully clothed

Etymology: The word "cerement" is a burial cloth, a shroud soaked in wax, and its history is in the wax itself. It comes from French "cirement," meaning "waxing" or "wax dressing," which derives from the verb "cirer," "to wax" or "to wrap." The idea was that a corpse was wound in cloth coated with wax, sealing the body against decay and odour. The English word is therefore less about the shroud's fabric than about the treatment applied to it. A cerement was a wax-saturated winding sheet, and the name carried that waxy sealing into English, where it still means a burial wrapping. Few readers would guess that a funeral cloth takes its name from a candle-making material.

Synonyms: shroud, wrapping, covering