the.com/grave
the only real estate you'll occupy forever and never appreciate.
means A hole dug in the ground to bury a dead body — or, as an adjective, something seriously weighty and solemn.
from Two different words wearing the same coat. The burial-pit 'grave' comes from Old English 'græf,' a digging or trench, rooted in a Germanic verb 'graban' meaning to dig or carve — a cousin of 'engrave' and German 'graben.' The serious 'grave' (as in 'a grave mistake') arrived later from Latin 'gravis,' meaning heavy or weighty, by way of French — the same heaviness that gives us 'gravity' and 'gravid.' English simply fused the two, so the place you're buried and the tone of the occasion happen to spell alike.
- depth myth
- Six feet was a plague-era standard, not law.
- reused plots
- Many graves are leased, then recycled decades later.
- grave goods
- Pharaohs packed snacks and servants for eternity.
- word root
- Comes from Old English for digging, not death.
- upright dead
- Some cultures bury standing, ready to rise.
pere lachaise cemetery — paris cemetery where oscar wilde, jim morrison, and balzac are buried; 44,000 graves across 44 hectares
tutankhamun's tomb — kv62 in valley of the kings, egypt; discovered 1922 by howard carter with mummy largely intact
westminster abbey — london church containing graves of charles darwin, stephen hawking, and 17 british monarchs since 1066