hearsecloth means A cloth for covering a coffin when on a bier; a pall. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why “hearsecloth” is a great word
HEARSECLOTH — [Noun] A cloth, especially a pall, used to cover a coffin on a bier during a funeral. From Middle English herse (a framework for holding candles over a coffin, later a bier or carriage) + cloth (a piece of fabric). Unlike a pall, which carries a weight of heraldry and ceremony, or a shroud, which is the intimate, final wrapping of the body itself, the hearsecloth is the simpler, more functional term for that public drapery. It is the black wool felt damp from a morning mist, the frayed velvet edge glimpsed as the procession turns, the sober linen drawn taut over unvarnished wood—a final veil between the world and the box it carries away.
Etymology
From hearse + cloth.
noun
- A cloth for covering a coffin when on a bier; a pall.“His body was stripped, laid out upon a table, and covered with a hearsecloth, when some of his attendants perceived symptoms of returning animation, and by the use of warm applications, internal and external, gradually restored him to life.”