hearse
UK /hɜːs/ · US /hɝs/ noun, verb
Also a form of hearst
Forms hearses hearsing hearsed herse
- noun 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.
- noun A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument.
- noun A bier or handbarrow for conveying the dead to the grave.
- noun A carriage or vehicle specially adapted or used for transporting a dead person to the place of funeral or to the grave.
- verb (dated) To enclose in a hearse; to entomb.
Etymology
From Middle English herse, hers, herce, from Old French herce in the sense "triangular framework used to support candles". Ultimately the same word as Old French herce (“harrow”), from Latin *herpicem, accusative singular of *herpex, a variant form of hirpex (“harrow”). The agricultural device's name comes from Oscan hirpus (“wolf”), a reference to a harrow's many teeth. The term for wolf may ultimately be from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff, rigid, bristled”). The Oscan term is related to Latin hīrsūtus (“bristly, shaggy”), whence English hirsute.
The TLFi considers the "framework to support candles" sense of the French word to be derived more specifically from Medieval Latin hercia; in any case, this is ultimately from the same source. (Du Cange sees in hercia a contraction of an extended form *herpicia. It may instead simply be a Latinization of Old French herce.) Doublet of herse (“kind of gate”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hind in the year of its age. [Eng.] Wright.
- noun 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. [Obs.] Oxf. Gloss.
- noun A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument. [Archaic]
- verb To inclose in a hearse; to entomb. [Obs.] "Would she were hearsed at my foot." Shak.
Etymology [Etymol. uncertain.]
Etymology [See Herse.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hearse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details