inurn

English

Alternative forms

enurn (obsolete)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Italic *n̥-

Latin in-bor.

Middle English in-

English in-

English urn

English inurn

From in- + urn.

Verb

inurn (third-person singular simple present inurns, present participle inurning, simple past and past participle inurned)

(transitive) To place (the remains of a person who has died) in an urn or other container.
Synonyms: bury, ensepulchre, entomb, inhume, inter, lay to rest
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 3 [4]]:
  […] the Sepulcher
  Wherein we saw thee quietly enurn’d
  Hath op’d his ponderous and Marble iawes,
  To cast thee vp againe
  the 1603 edition of the play has “interr’d”
- 1760, Charlotte Lennox, “The Natural History of the Formica-Leo, or Lion-Pismire”, in The Lady’s Museum‎^[1], volume 1, London: J. Newbery, page 314:
  […] it is necessary that he should pass through a period of temporary death, for which state he prepares in the following manner, building to himself a secure and convenient tomb, wherein he lies decently inurned till the appointed moment when he is to arise from his inactive state, and become the inhabitant of another element.
- 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza 4, page 4:
  Nelson was once Britannia’s god of war,
  And still should be so, but the tide is turn’d;
  There’s no more to be said of Trafalgar,
  ’Tis with our hero quietly inurn’d;
- 1994, William R. Maples, Michael Browning, chapter 10, in Dead Men Do Tell Tales‎^[2], New York: Doubleday, page 136:
  Each one [crematory] is different, and there is a wide range in the quality of the work they do and the pains they take in combusting and inurning human remains.
(transitive) To hold or contain (the remains of a person who has died).
- 1792, Thomas Watkins, Travels through Swisserland, Italy, Sicily, the Greek Islands, to Constantinople‎^[3], London: T. Cadell, Volume 1, Letter 18, p. 350:
  Now there are no other remains of its [Hadrian’s mausoleum’s] grandeur than a ball of bronze in the Vatican, which crowned its cupola, and was supposed to inurn the ashes of its Imperial founder.
- 1826, Caleb Cushing, Eulogy given on 15 July, 1826, in A Selection of Eulogies, Pronounced in the Several States, in Honor of […] John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Hartford: D.F. Robinson, p. 21,^[4]
  Over the insensible marble, which inurns their ashes, a nation bows prostrate in the lowly attitude of mourning,
- 1838, George Hill, “The Battle of San Jacinto”, in The Ruins of Athens; Titania’s Banquet, A Mask; and Other Poems‎^[5], Boston: Otis, Broaders, page 79:
  […] as the plough turns
  Some warlike relic from the sod,
  Whose mould the battle-ranks inurns,
- 1884, James Thomson, “The Poet and His Muse”, in A Voice from the Nile, and Other Poems‎^[6], London: Reeves and Turner, page 59:
  Though you exist still, a mere form inurning
  The ashes of dead fires of thought and yearning,

Derived terms

inurnment

Anagrams

inrun, run in, run-in