catafalque

English

WOTD – 24 February 2006

Lincoln Catafalque

Alternative forms

• catafalco

Etymology

Borrowed from French catafalque, from Italian catafalco, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum, from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down”) + Latin fala (“scaffolding, wooden siege tower”), which is from Etruscan. Also influenced scaffold.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkatəfalk/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Noun

catafalque (plural catafalques)

1. A platform used to display or convey a coffin during a funeral, often ornate.
   • 1942, The Giant Joshua by Maurine Whipple

     Until noon, the hour of the funeral, crowds continued to file by the plain pine coffin on its plain flower-covered catafalque.

   • 2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge 2008, p. 91:

     The period of official mourning was long-drawn-out even by the standards of the day; the funeral ceremony held in Avignon's cathedral lasted a full nine days, with the pope's catafalque hung with black silk beneath candelabra likewise draped in black.

Translations

platform to display or convey a coffin

• Czech: katafalk (cs) m
• Esperanto: katafalko
• Finnish: katafalkki (fi)
• French: catafalque (fr) m
• Georgian: კატაფალკი (ḳaṭapalḳi)
• German: Katafalk (de) m
• Hungarian: ravatal (hu)

• Italian: catafalco m
• Polish: katafalk (pl) m
• Portuguese: catafalco m, essa (pt) f
• Romanian: catafalc (ro) n
• Russian: катафа́лк (ru) m (katafálk)
• Spanish: túmulo (es) m

Further reading

• catafalque on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian catafalco, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum, from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down”) + Latin fala (“scaffolding, wooden siege tower”), which is from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ta.falk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: catafalques

Noun

catafalque m (plural catafalques)

1. catafalco, catafalque

Further reading

• “catafalque” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).