Etymology

tomb

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Today it means: A small building, or a room within one, 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. Full definition →

Middle English tombe ← Old French tombe ← Latin tumba
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tomb · noun, verb1

  1. Middle English · inherited fromtomben
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*tewh₂-“to swell”
  3. Ancient Greek · derived fromτύμβος“a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”
  4. Latin · derived fromtumba
  5. Old French · derived fromtombe
  6. Middle English · inherited fromtombe
  7. English todaytomb

From Middle English tombe, toumbe, borrowed from Old French tombe, from Latin tumba from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “a sepulchral mound, tomb, grave”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”). Displaced native Old English þrūh. The verb is from Middle English tomben.

Tomb · proper noun2

Perhaps a variant spelling of Tom, with excrescent -b.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*tewh₂- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.