Inters

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To place a dead body into a grave or tomb ; to bury a corpse with ceremony or ritual ; to deposit human remains underground or in a sepulcher
2. The act of entombing a deceased person in a burial site ; the process of committing the dead to the earth ; the ceremonial placement of a corpse in a grave
3. To lay a body to rest in an earthbound or constructed resting place ; to perform burial rites involving placing the deceased in a grave ; to consign remains to a final resting location in the soil or tomb

Etymology: "Inters" is the third-person singular form of "inter," so it traces back to the same verb. The root is the Latin phrase "in terra," meaning "in the earth," which Vulgar Latin turned into a verb, "interrāre," meaning "to put in earth." That verb passed into Old French as "enterrer" and "enterer," and English took it up in Middle English as "enteren." The word's meaning has stayed remarkably close to its origin: to put something into the ground. The verb's sound has shifted over the centuries, which is why it looks so different from its Latin ancestor. The "in" dropped its vowel to become "en," and the spelling settled into the modern "inter" we use today.

Synonyms: buries, entombs, lays to rest, plants

Antonyms: exhumes, disinterrs, unearths