Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A published notice of a death, sometimes with a brief biography of the deceased.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or relating to the death of a person or persons: as, an obituary notice.
- n. A list of the dead; also, a register of obitual anniversary days, when service is performed for the dead.
- n. An account of persons deceased; notice of the death of a person, often accompanied with a brief biographical sketch.
Wiktionary
- n. A brief notice of a person’s death, as published in a newspaper.
- n. A biography of a recently deceased person, written by a journalist and published in a newspaper.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to the death of a person or persons
- n. That which pertains to, or is called forth by, the obit or death of a person; esp., an account of a deceased person.
- n. A notice of the death of a person, published in a newspaper or other periodical, accompanied by a biographical sketch which may be brief ro extended.
- n. The section of a newspaper in which obituaries{2} are printed.
- n. A list of the dead, or a register of anniversary days when service is performed for the dead.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a notice of someone's death; usually includes a short biography
Etymologies
- Medieval Latin obituārius, (report) of death, from Latin obitus, death, from past participle of obīre, to meet, meet one's death : ob-, toward; see ob- + īre, to go; see ei- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“As ever, the best obituary is in the Daily Telegraph.”
“An obituary is not an opinion, and the proper thing to do is send condolences.”
“A preliminary obituary is here, and there will surely be more appreciations and tributes to follow.”
Charles Brown, 1937-2009 « Haikasoru: Space Opera. Dark Fantasy. Hard Science.
“The entire obituary is a must-read: Famed Eames design team member dies (Santa Monica Daily Press)”
“The whole point of the obituary is to make known that someone has died and yet how he died is left a complete mystery.”
“And we can read your obituary from the comfort of our armchairs. on November 3, 2008 at 8: 33 pm | Reply Danger Mouse”
“June 2nd, 2008 9: 53 am ET your political obituary is already carved in a stone at the politician's graveyard in capitol hill.”
Clinton reviewing 'options' - but says superdelegates could shift
“Marty Beckerman, author of forthcoming Disinformation book Dumbocracy has his own take on a George Carlin obituary:”
“George Macdonald Fraser, the author of the Flashman novels, has died – this is his obituary from the London Telegraph:”
“My brother Jake, he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘obituary’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
gcastro I always skip this section on the newspaper because it's depressing. Oct 1, 2010
bilby Yesterday I heard a newsreader pronounce this as a bitchery. Which is not very nice at all :-( Oct 7, 2009
snapd I do not have more definitive etymological information from Serbo Croatian but I find this mention from arl Darling Buck's A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in Principal Indo-European Languages University of Chicago Press page 133 section 2.82 (Family) number 6 to be interesting:
Serbo-Croatian obitelj: Church Slavonic obiteli ‘dwelling’ (of monks), ‘monastery’, from obitati ‘dwell’
The resemblance to obit is too startling for it not to merit further investigation? May 27, 2009