Word Study
obituary
CIDE DICTIONARY
obituary, a. [See Obit.].
Of or pertaining to the death of a person or persons; as, an obituary notice; obituary poetry. [1913 Webster]
obituary, n. [Cf. F. obituaire. See Obit.].
- That which pertains to, or is called forth by, the obit or death of a person; esp., an account of a deceased person. [1913 Webster]
- A notice of the death of a person, published in a newspaper or other periodical, accompanied by a biographical sketch which may be brief ro extended; as, the funeral director arranged placed an obituary in the local papaer. [1913 Webster]
- The section of a newspaper in which obituaries{2} are printed; as, I saw the notice of his death in the obituaries. [PJC]
- A list of the dead, or a register of anniversary days when service is performed for the dead. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
obituary, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a notice of a death or deaths esp. in a newspaper.
2 an account of the life of a deceased person.
3 (attrib.) of or serving as an obituary.
1 a notice of a death or deaths esp. in a newspaper.
2 an account of the life of a deceased person.
3 (attrib.) of or serving as an obituary.
Derivative
obituarial adj. obituarist n.
Etymology
med.L obituarius f. L obitus death f. obire obit- die (as OB-, ire go)
THESAURUS
obituary
Clio, Muse of history, adventures, annals, arch, archival, autobiography, barrow, bill of mortality, biographical sketch, biography, body count, boundary stone, brass, bust, cairn, case history, casualty list, cenotaph, chronicle, chronicles, chronology, cinerary, column, confessions, cromlech, cross, cup, curriculum vitae, cyclolith, death roll, diary, dirgelike, dismal, documental, documentary, documentational, dolmen, epigraphic, epitaphic, eulogy, exequial, experiences, feral, footstone, fortunes, funebrial, funebrious, funebrous, funeral, funerary, funereal, grave, gravestone, hagiography, hagiology, headstone, historiography, history, hoarstone, inscription, journal, legend, life, life and letters, life story, marker, martyrology, mausoleum, megalith, memento, memoir, memoirs, memorabilia, memorial, memorial arch, memorial column, memorial statue, memorial stone, memorials, menhir, monolith, monument, mortuary, mortuary roll, mound, mournful, necrological, necrologue, necrology, obelisk, obit, obsequial, photobiography, pillar, plaque, prize, profile, pyramid, record, register of deaths, reliquary, remembrance, resume, ribbon, rostral column, sepulchral, shaft, shrine, stela, stone, story, stupa, tablet, testimonial, theory of history, tomb, tombstone, tope, trophyROGET THESAURUS
obituary
Description
N description, account, statement, report, expose, specification, particulars, state of facts, summary of facts, brief, return, catalogue raisonne, guidebook, delineation, sketch, monograph, minute account, detailed particular account, circumstantial account, graphic account, narration, recital, rehearsal, relation, historiography, chronography, historic Muse, Clio, history, biography, autobiography, necrology, obituary, narrative, history, memoir, memorials, annals, saga, tradition, legend, story, tale, historiette, personal narrative, journal, life, adventures, fortunes, experiences, confessions, anecdote, ana, trait, work of fiction, novel, romance, Minerva press, fairy tale, nursery tale, fable, parable, apologue, dime novel, penny dreadful, shilling shocker relator, raconteur, historian, biographer, fabulist, novelist, descriptive, graphic, narrative, epic, suggestive, well-drawn, historic, traditional, traditionary, legendary, anecdotic, storied, described, furor scribendi.Death
N death, decease, demise, dissolution, departure, obit, release, rest, quietus, fall, loss, bereavement, mortality, morbidity, end of life &c, cessation of life &c, loss of life, extinction of life, ebb of life, death warrant, death watch, death rattle, death bed, stroke of death, agonies of death, shades of death, valley of death, jaws of death, hand of death, last breath, last gasp, last agonies, dying day, dying breath, dying agonies, chant du cygne, rigor mortis, Stygian shore, King of terrors, King Death, Death, doom, Hell's grim Tyrant, euthanasia, break up of the system, natural death, natural decay, sudden death, violent death, untimely end, watery grave, debt of nature, suffocation, asphyxia, fatal disease, death blow, necrology, bills of mortality, obituary, death song, dead, lifeless, deceased, demised, departed, defunct, extinct, late, gone, no more, exanimate, inanimate, out of the world, taken off, released, departed this life, dead and gone, dead as a doornail, dead as a doorpost, dead as a mutton, dead as a herring, dead as nits, launched into eternity, gone to one's eternal reward, gone to meet one's maker, pushing up daisies, gathered to one's fathers, numbered with the dead, dying, moribund, morient, hippocratic, in articulo, in extremis, in the jaws of death, in the agony of death, going off, aux abois, one one's last legs, on one's death bed, at the point of death, at death's door, at the last gasp, near one's end, given over, booked, with one foot in the grave, tottering on the brink of the grave, stillborn, mortuary, deadly, post obit, post mortem, life ebbs, life fails, life hangs by a thread, one's days are numbered, one's hour is come, one's race is run, one's doom is sealed, Death knocks at the door, Death stares one in the face, the breath is out of the body, the grave closes over one, sic itur ad astra, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, honesta mors turpi vita potior, in adamantine chains shall death be bound, mors ultima linea rerum est, ominia mors aequat, Spake the grisly Terror, the lone couch of this everlasting sleep, nothing is certain but death and taxes.For further exploring for "obituary" in Webster Dictionary Online