thanatolatry

Etymology

From thanato- + -latry.

thanatolatry means the worship of death. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

THANATOLATRY — [Noun] The worship of death as a divine or ultimate principle. From the combining form thanato-, from Ancient Greek θάνατος (thánatos, "death") and -latry, from Ancient Greek λατρεία (latreía, "worship"). Unlike thanatology (the clinical study of dying) or necromancy (the pragmatic conjuring of spirits), thanatolatry is a reverent, liturgical devotion. It is the patient tending of a marble mausoleum as a sacred garden, the skull upon the altar as a holy icon, and the deliberate cultivation of a funereal garden of yew and cypress—a quiet faith that the only sovereign whose arrival is utterly assured is the one we spend our lives trying to escape.

noun

The worship of death.“They confuse Christianity with a thanatolatry and a dolorolatry, a worship of death and suffering.”