Obsequial

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or appropriate for a funeral or burial ceremony
2. Concerning the practices and ceremonies that are performed during funerals or related to the act of burying the dead
3. Pertaining to the rituals and formalities associated with death or the process of interring a body

Etymology: "Obsequial" is a formation built from "obsequy," an older English word for a funeral rite, with the adjectival suffix "-al" added to it. The suffix turns the noun into a description of anything connected with funerals, so the word sits in the same family as "nuptial" (relating to weddings) and "funereal." The root noun "obsequy" is itself a variant of "obsequies," the plural form still used for funeral ceremonies. Its ancestry runs back to Latin "obsequiae," meaning funeral rites, which gave English a noun for the solemn ritual surrounding a death. English speakers later stopped treating the plural as a plural, so "obsequies" became the standard singular-looking form and "obsequy" a rarer variant beside it. Because "obsequial" is a straightforward suffixed adjective, its meaning follows directly from its parts: anything that belongs to the business of burying the dead. Its rarity today is part of what makes it notable, since it survives mainly in dictionaries and in careful writing about funerary customs.