different between tomb vs coffin

English

Etymology

From Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek ?????? (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh?- (“to swell”).

The verb is from Middle English tomben.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tu?m/?
• (US) IPA^(key): /tum/
• Rhymes: -u?m

Noun

tomb (plural tombs)

1. A small building (or "vault") for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed.
2. A pit in which the dead body of a human being is deposited; a grave.
3. One who keeps secrets.
   • 1912 Constance Garnett (tr.), Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov (1880) Book III, chapter 4

     I never told anyone about it. You're the first, except Ivan, of course—Ivan knows everything. He knew about it long before you. But Ivan's a tomb.

Derived terms

• disentomb
• entomb
• tombstone

Descendants

• ? Irish: tuama
• ? Maori: toma

Translations

Verb

tomb (third-person singular simple present tombs, present participle tombing, simple past and past participle tombed)

1. (transitive) To bury.

Catalan

Etymology

From tombar.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?tomp/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?tom/
• Homophone: tom (Central)

Noun

tomb m (plural tombs)

1. turn (change of direction)
2. turn, twist (movement around an axis)
3. turn (change of temperament or circumstance)
4. walk, stroll

Derived terms

• venir a tomb

Further reading

• “tomb” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Middle English

Noun

tomb (plural tombes)

1. Alternative form of tombe (“tomb”)

English

Alternative forms

• cophin (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek ??????? (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• (US, cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• Rhymes: -?f?n
• Rhymes: -?f?n

Noun

coffin (plural coffins)

1. A rectangular closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.

   Synonym: (US) casket

   • 20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along?

     I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look up at his mother’s coffin in front of him was, and remains, genuinely heartbreaking.

2. (cartomancy) The eighth Lenormand card.
3. (archaic) A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
   • 1596, The Good Huswife's Jewell

     Take your mallard and put him into the iuyce of the sayde Onyons, and season him with pepper, and salte, cloues and mace, then put your Mallard into the coffin with the saide iuyce of the onyons.

4. (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

5. The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
6. A storage container for nuclear waste.

Usage notes

• The type of coffin with upholstery and a half-open lid (mostly in the United States) is called a casket.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

coffin (third-person singular simple present coffins, present participle coffining, simple past and past participle coffined)

1. (transitive) To place in a coffin.
   • 2007, Barbara Everett, "Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances," London Review of Books, 29:6, page 21:

     The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.

Synonyms

• encoffin

Translations

Further reading

• coffin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

coffin (plural)

1. Alternative form of coffyn