Inhumation
/ˌɪn.hjuːˈmeɪ.ʃən/noun
The act of burying a dead body in the ground.
Did you know?Inhumation became the dominant burial term in English through Latin legal and ecclesiastical writing, where burial practices were treated as a formal rite of returning the body to the ground.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dhghem-
“earth, ground”
Latin
Latin
humus
“ground, soil”
Latin
Latin
inhumare
“to bury in the ground”
Late Latin
Latin
inhumatio
“burial, interment”
Middle English
English
inhumacioun
“burial; interment”
Modern English
English
inhumation
“the act of burying a corpse in the ground”