Forms: 5 cymytery, -torye, cymitory, cymetorye, cimiteri, 6 cimitorie, -tory, cemitorie, cœmiteri, 6–7 cemiterie, 7 cemitory, cyme-, cimitery, sœmeterie, cyme-, cymitier, 7–8 cœme-, cœmitery, 8 cemitery, ceme-, cœmitary, 8– cemetery. [ad. L. cœmētērium, ad. Gr. κοιμητήριον dormitory, (in Christian writers) burial-ground.]
A place, usually a ground, set apart for the burial of the dead.
a. Originally applied to the Roman underground cemeteries or CATACOMBS.
[1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 65. A chirche hawe at Rome … hatte cimitorium calixty.]
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 67. Anicetus … was biried in the cymytery of Kalixt.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., IV. (1520), 37/2. He ordeyned the Cimiteri where many a thousande martyrs is buryed.
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., III. (1672), 679. Had the Christians long before used to keep their Assemblies at the Cœmiteries and Monuments of their Martyrs.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 37. Beyond which there extend, in every one of the cemeteries, galleries choked up and inaccessible.
1855. Cdl. Wiseman, Fabiola, II. ii. The very name of cemetery suggests that it is only a place where many lie, as in a dormitory, slumbering for a while.
† b. The consecrated enclosure round a church; a churchyard. Obs.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 243. Two cymytoyres or chircheyerdes.
1530–1. Act 22 Hen. VIII., c. 14. Any parishe churche, Cimitorie, or other lyke halowed place.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 321. [He] was buried in the Cemitory or churchyard of his owne church.
1644. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 73. About this cathedral is a very spacious cemetery.
1771. Antiq. Sarisb., 74.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl., 172. The place on which the buildings of the Parliament Square stand was formerly the cemetery of St. Giles.
c. A burial-ground generally; now esp. a large public park or ground laid out expressly for the interment of the dead, and not being the ‘yard’ of any church.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. V. vii. 411. I saw a certaine Cœmiterium or burying-place, then which I had never seene a fairer sight.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 90, ¶ 2. It is for this Reason (says Plato) that the Souls of the Dead appear frequently in Cœmiteries.
1753. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 337. A public coemetery … was highly requisite.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 71. The women often stay all the days of the festival in the cemeteries.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 119. I should have been in the Protestant Cemetery at Puerto Blanco.
Mod. He was buried in Abney Park Cemetery.
d. fig.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. It is with libraries as with other cœmeteries.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., ii. 70. The old folios that fill the shelves all round the great cemetery of past transactions of which he is the sexton.
1886. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxlv. 7. That the goodness of the living God should be buried in the cemetery of silence.
