epitaph

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ep=i=taph

CIDE DICTIONARY

epitaph, n. [F. épitaphe, L. epitaphium a funeral oration, fr. Gr. , orig. an adj., over or at a tomb; 'epi` upon + tomb. Cf. Cenotaph.].

•  An inscription on, or at, a tomb, or a grave, in memory or commendation of the one buried there; a sepulchral inscription.  [1913 Webster]

  "Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb."  [1913 Webster]
•  A brief writing formed as if to be inscribed on a monument, as that concerning Alexander: “Sufficit huic tumulus, cui non sufficeret orbis.”  [1913 Webster]

epitaph, v. t. 

 To commemorate by an epitaph.  [1913 Webster]
"Let me be epitaphed the inventor of English hexameters."  [1913 Webster]

epitaph, v. i. 

 To write or speak after the manner of an epitaph.  [1913 Webster]
"The common in their speeches epitaph upon him . . . “He lived as a wolf and died as a dog.”"  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

epitaph, n. words written in memory of a person who has died, esp. as a tomb inscription.

Etymology

ME f. OF epitaphe f. L epitaphium f. Gk epitaphion funeral oration (as EPI-, taphos tomb)

DEVIL DICTIONARY

epitaph

n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect. Following is a touching example:

Here lie the bones of Parson Platt,
Wise, pious, humble and all that,
Who showed us life as all should live it;
Let that be said -- and God forgive it!

ROGET THESAURUS

epitaph

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.