epitaph

/ˈɛp.ɪˌtɑːf/

Etymology

From Old French epitafe, from Late Latin epitaphium (“eulogy”), from Ancient Greek ἐπιτάφιος (epitáphios, “relating to a funeral”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + τάφος (táphos, “tomb”). By surface analysis epi- + -taph.

noun

  1. An inscription on a gravestone in memory of the deceased.“The church itself, or at all events the squat and tiny tower, has not altered much since Lamb saw it. But the epitaphs have gone. Search among the ivies and yews of the shady little churchyard will discover a number of flat, weatherworn slabs of stone, but the verses and the signatures have vanished.”
  2. A poem or other short text written in memory of a deceased person.“Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs, elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, ”

verb

  1. To write or speak after the manner of an epitaph.“The Commons in their speeches epitaph upon him […] "He lived as a wolf and died as a dog."”
  2. To commemorate by an epitaph.“Let me rather be epitaphed the inventor of the English Hexameter.”