columbarium

English

A wall of a columbarium (3)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin columbārium, from columba (“pigeon”) +‎ -ārium (“place for”).

Noun

columbarium (plural columbariums or columbaria)

1. (historical) A large, sometimes architecturally impressive building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, particularly those of ancien regime France.

   Synonym: dovecote

   • 1885, Philip Smith, History of the World from the Creation to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, volume 2:

     Their sides present the well-known appearance of the Roman columbaria (dove-cotes), but with the important difference, that they are adapted to contain coffins instead of urns, the holes being about 2 feet square and 6 feet deep.

   • 1979, Leonard Swidler, Biblical Affirmations of Woman, page 61:

     Doves were culticly protected; great towers were built for them in which they could nest; they were called columbaria (columba is the Latin word for dove).

   • 2008, Stanley Graham, Barnoldswich, page 34:

     Fish ponds were stocked with netted fish during the summer as a source of protein and dove cotes, or as the Romans called them, 'columbariums', were another.

2. A pigeonhole in such a dovecote.
3. A building, a vault or a similar place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns containing cremated remains.

   Synonym: cinerarium
4. A niche in such a building for housing urns.

Translations

a building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves

• Catalan: colomar m
• Dutch: duivenhuis n, columbarium (nl) n
• German: Taubenhaus (de) n, Taubenschlag (de) n, Kolumbarium (de) n, Columbarium (de) n
• Greek: περιστερώνας (el) m (peristerónas)
• Ido: kolumbario (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: colmlann f
• Italian: colombario (it) m
• Romanian: porumbar (ro) n
• Russian: голубя́тня (ru) f (golubjátnja)
• Spanish: palomar m
• Welsh: colomendy m

a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns

• Catalan: columbari m
• Dutch: columbarium (nl) n
• Finnish: kolumbaario (fi)
• French: columbarium (fr) m
• German: Urnenhalle f, Kolumbarium (de) n, Columbarium (de) n
• Greek: τεφροφυλάκιο n (tefrofylákio)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: kolumbario (io)
• Italian: colombario (it) m
• Polish: kolumbarium (pl) n
• Romanian: columbar (ro) n
• Russian: колумба́рий (ru) m (kolumbárij)
• Swedish: kolumbarium (sv) n

Further reading

• columbarium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin columbārium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkoː.lʏmˈbaː.ri.ʏm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: col‧lum‧ba‧ri‧um

Noun

columbarium n (plural columbaria or columbariums)

1. (historical) vault for funerary urns, columbarium
2. dovecote, columbarium

   Synonyms: duivenhuis, duiventil

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Latin

Etymology

From columba (“dove”) +‎ -ārium (“place for”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ko.lumˈbaː.ri.um/, [kɔɫ̪ʊmˈbäːriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ko.lumˈba.ri.um/, [kolumˈbäːrium]

Noun

columbārium n (genitive columbāriī or columbārī); second declension

1. dovecote
2. in architecture, a hole for a horizontal member such as a joist or rafter; a gain or mortise
3. a hole in the side of a waterwheel near its axle, where the water lifted by the wheel exits
4. nautically, an opening for oars in the side of a vessel
5. in burial, an underground chamber for interring cremated remains, with niches for the urns of ashes

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	columbārium	columbāria
Genitive	columbāriī columbārī1	columbāriōrum
Dative	columbāriō	columbāriīs
Accusative	columbārium	columbāria
Ablative	columbāriō	columbāriīs
Vocative	columbārium	columbāria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

References

• “columbarium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• columbarium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “columbarium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “columbarium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin