Well, it’s hard to make etymology scary. The best I can do is etymologize scary things. That’s almost like being scary, right?
Maybe not. Anyway, this week: disposing of the body.
Grave
Grave had more than one definition of course. You’d think they’d all be related, but they’re not. You know the serious grave? Yeah. Not related to a dead body grave. Unlike engraved. I’m not kidding. Dead body grave comes from the Old English graef, grave, which is from the Proto Germanic graban and Proto Indo European grebh, dig or scrape. Apparently because you scrape dirt out of the ground for a grave and also scrape when you engrave. Sure. The serious grave on the other hand comes from the Middle French grave and classical Latin gravis, serious, and before that the Proto Indo European gwere-, heavy. Being the same as grave is just a coincidence.
Bury
Maybe this one will make sense. Bury comes from the Old English byrgan, which means bury or hide. You might be wondering how it got from byrgan to bury—it’s because Y used to have the oo sound. While we don’t say “boory” (although that’s a good spelling for this month), it’s a lot easier to see how it got from that to bury. As for the g…G has always been stupid. Don’t get me started on G. Anyway, before it was byrgan, it was just the Proto Indo European bhergh-, hide or protect. Well, burying something is hiding it, I guess I can declare this one not-stupid. Mostly.
Cremation
Cremation showed up in the 1620s, while cremate didn’t appear until 1874—it’s practically a baby. It came from the classical Latin cremationem, which is obviously cremation, and cremare, to burn. It can be traced even further back to the Proto Indo European krem-/ker-, heat or fire. It’s actually the origin word for Carbon, by the way.
I guess that’s it for this week. Don’t worry. More grave related stuff next week!
Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
