Word Study
catacomb
CIDE DICTIONARY
catacomb, n. [It. catacomba, fr. L. catacumba perh. from Gr. kata` downward, down + ky`mbh cavity.].
A cave, grotto, or subterraneous place of large extent used for the burial of the dead; -- commonly in the plural. [1913 Webster]
" The terms is supposed to have been applied originally to the tombs under the church of St. Sebastian in Rome. The most celebrated catacombs are those near Rome, on the Appian Way, supposed to have been the place or refuge and interment of the early Christians; those of Egypt, extending for a wide distance in the vicinity of Cairo; and those of Paris, in abandoned stone quarries, excavated under a large portion of the city." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
catacomb, n. (often in pl.)
1 an underground cemetery, esp. a Roman subterranean gallery with recesses for tombs.
2 a similar underground construction; a cellar.
1 an underground cemetery, esp. a Roman subterranean gallery with recesses for tombs.
2 a similar underground construction; a cellar.
Etymology
F catacombes f. LL catacumbas (name given in the 5th c. to the cemetery of St Sebastian near Rome), of unkn. orig.
ROGET THESAURUS
catacomb
Interment
N interment, burial, sepulture, inhumation, obsequies, exequies, funeral, wake, pyre, funeral pile, cremation, funeral, funeral rite, funeral solemnity, kneel, passing bell, tolling, dirge, cypress, orbit, dead march, muffled drum, mortuary, undertaker, mute, elegy, funeral, funeral oration, funeral sermon, epitaph, graveclothes, shroud, winding sheet, cerecloth, cerement, coffin, shell, sarcophagus, urn, pall, bier, hearse, catafalque, cinerary urn, grave, pit, sepulcher, tomb, vault, crypt, catacomb, mausoleum, Golgotha, house of death, narrow house, cemetery, necropolis, burial place, burial ground, grave yard, church yard, God's acre, tope, cromlech, barrow, tumulus, cairn, ossuary, bone house, charnel house, dead house, morgue, lich gate, burning ghat, crematorium, crematory, dokhma, mastaba, potter's field, stupa, Tower of Silence, sexton, gravedigger, monument, cenotaph, shrine, grave stone, head stone, tomb stone, memento mori, hatchment, stone, obelisk, pyramid, exhumation, disinterment, necropsy, autopsy, post mortem examination, zoothapsis, burried, burial, funereal, funebrial, mortuary, sepulchral, cinerary, elegiac, necroscopic, in memoriam, post obit, post mortem, beneath the sod, hic jacet, ci-git, RIP, requiescat in pace, the lone couch of his everlasting sleep, without a grave- unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown, in the dark union of insensate dust, the deep cold shadow of the tomb, Special Vitality.For further exploring for "catacomb" in Webster Dictionary Online
