columbarium

[prettygoodword]

columbarium - n., a vault with niches for urns containing the ashes of the dead; one of these niches.


Some examples here. Plural is columbaria, in good Latin declination, or columbariums, in good modern English, or columbaries, in eccentric early modern English -- despite the fact that it's been in use only since the 1840s. From Latin meaning dovecote -- apparently Roman dovecotes had similar nesting recesses -- from columba, dove.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

And here I imagined it was the room where St. Columba meditated.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Though, perhaps he did meditate in a columbarium. It would be a good place to remember sic transit gloria mundi and all that.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Assuming he lived in a time where cremating was acceptable -- the Church has oftimes been Not Approving of the practice (I think the concern is interference with the bodily resurrection).

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Right, good point! I forgot about that.