Noun
epitaph (plural epitaphs)
- An inscription on a gravestone in memory of the deceased.
1909, Eric Parker, chapter XXIII, in Highways and Byways in Surrey:The church itself, or at all events the squat and tiny tower, has not altered much since Lamb saw it. But the epitaphs have gone. Search among the ivies and yews of the shady little churchyard will discover a number of flat, weatherworn slabs of stone, but the verses and the signatures have vanished.
- A poem or other short text written in memory of a deceased person.
1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Honest Objects of Love”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs, elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternal memory.
Translations
inscription on a gravestone
- Afrikaans: epitaaf
- Armenian: տապանագիր (hy) (tapanagir), շիրմագիր (hy) (širmagir), գերեզմանագիր (hy) (gerezmanagir), դամբանագիր (hy) (dambanagir)
- Azerbaijani: epitafiya
- Belarusian: эпітафія f (epitafija), надмагільны надпіс m (nadmahilʹny nadpis), магільны надпіс m (mahilʹny nadpis)
- Bulgarian: надгробен надпис m (nadgroben nadpis)
- Catalan: epitafi m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 墓誌銘/墓志铭 (zh) (mùzhìmíng), 碑文 (zh) (bēiwén)
- Czech: epitaf m, náhrobní (cs) nápis (cs) m
- Dutch: grafschrift (nl) n
- Esperanto: tomboskribo
- Estonian: hauakiri
- Finnish: hautakirjoitus (fi), epitafi
- French: épitaphe (fr) f
- Georgian: ეპიტაფია (eṗiṭapia)
- German: Grabinschrift (de) f; (rare, elevated) Epitaph (de) n
- Hungarian: sírfelirat (hu)
- Icelandic: grafskrift (is) f
- Ido: epitafo (io)
- Indonesian: epitaf (id)
- Interlingua: epitaphio
- Irish: feartlaoi f
- Italian: epitaffio (it) m
- Japanese: エピタフ (epitafu), 墓碑銘 (ja) (ぼひめい, bohimei)
- Kazakh: құлпытастағы жазу (qūlpytastağy jazu), эпитафия (épitafiä)
- Korean: 묘지명(墓誌銘) (ko) (myojimyeong), 묘비명(墓碑銘) (ko) (myobimyeong), 에피타프 (epitapeu)
- Latin: titulus m, epitaphium n
- Malay: epitaf
- Persian: مزارنوشته (mazârnevešte), گورنوشته
- Polish: epitafium (pl) n
- Portuguese: epitáfio (pt) m
- Russian: эпита́фия (ru) f (epitáfija), надгро́бная на́дпись f (nadgróbnaja nádpisʹ)
- Scottish Gaelic: leac-sgrìobhadh m
- Spanish: epitafio (es) m
- Swedish: epitafium (sv) n, epitaf (sv) n
- Ukrainian: епіта́фія f (epitáfija), намоги́льний на́пис m (namohýlʹnyj nápys)
- Uzbek: epitafiya
- Vietnamese: văn bia
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commemorative poem or other text
Verb
epitaph (third-person singular simple present epitaphs, present participle epitaphing, simple past and past participle epitaphed)
- (intransitive) To write or speak after the manner of an epitaph.
1606, Joseph Hall, Heaven upon Earth:The Commons in their speeches epitaph upon him […] "He lived as a wolf and died as a dog."
- (transitive) To commemorate by an epitaph.
1592, Gabriel Harvey, Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets:Let me rather be epitaphed the inventor of the English Hexameter.