An understanding or awareness that death is a part of the human experience is found among peoples throughout the world. The concern for death is seen in the many words and expressions that are found in English for talking about death and for the different tasks associated with it.
Death:
The word “death” is from the Old English “deað” meaning “death, dying, cause of death.” It is related to the Old Saxon “doth” and the Old Frisian “dath.” Its origin is found in the Proto-Indo-European verbal stem “*dheu-” meaning “to die” with the suffix “*thus” which indicates an “act, process, condition.”
Undertaker:
The word “undertaker” came into English about 1400 with the general meaning of “a contractor or projecter of any sort.” In the 1690s, the word took on its specialized meaning, dealing with burials and funerals. The specialized meaning emerged from “funeral-undertaker.”
Mortician:
The term “mortician” is of fairly recent origin. It entered American English in 1895 at the meeting of the Funeral Directors’ Association of Kentucky which was held in Louisville. The association decided that:
“An undertaker will no longer be known as an ‘undertaker and embalmer.’ In the future he will be known as the ‘mortician.’”
The word was coined from “mortuary” and “ician” and was intended to be as prestigious as “physician.”
The noun “mortuary” had entered into English in the early fourteenth century from the Anglo-French “mortuarie” which was a “gift to a parish priest from a deceased parishioner.” The Latin roots of “mortuary” are found in “mortuus” which is the past participle of “morire” meaning “to die.” By the middle of the nineteenth century, “mortuary” was being used to refer to “a place where bodies are kept temporarily.”
Funeral:
Morticians (undertakers) are often involved in funerals: “funeral” referring to a “ceremony of burying a dead” person came into English as a noun in the early 1500s from the adjective “funeral.” The root of “funeral” seems to be the Latin “funus” which referred to “death, corpse, burial rites.” Ultimately, it seems to come from the Proto-Indio-European root “*dheu-” meaning “to die” but this origin is disputed by some linguists.
Epitaph:
In Christian England it was customary to bury dead people in a specific manner and to mark their graves with some sort of monument. In the mid-fourteenth century, the word “epitaph” entered into English in reference to the inscription on the tomb or burial monument. The word “epitaph” comes from the Medieval Latin “epitaphium” meaning “funeral oration, eulogy” which comes from the Greek “epitaphion” meaning “a funeral oration.” A deeper look into the etymology of “epitaph” shows it comes from the Proto-Indo-European root “*dhembh-” meaning “to bury.”
Obituary:
There was a time in the fairly recent past when newspapers were printed on paper and one of their widely-read features was the obituaries. “Obituary” came into English in 1706 with the meaning “register of deaths” and by 1738 had come to mean “a record or announcement of death which includes a brief biographical sketch.” The word comes from the Latin “obire” which means “to go toward, to go to meet.” The Latin “mortem obire” means “to meet death.”