Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday January 10, 2001
funereal \fyoo-NIR-ee-uhl\ , adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to a funeral.
2. Suiting a funeral; solemn; dark; gloomy; mournful.
But do I have to sound so funereal, so pontifically solemn?
-- Anatole Broyard, "(Enter Pound and Eliot)", New York Times, May 30, 1982
Where earlier the tone was funereal, now it consoles, uplifts.
-- Marguerite Feitlowitz, A Lexicon of Terror
M. M. Graff . . . disapproved of these particular trees, accusing them of being "a gloomy black-green at best and made even more funereal by a coating of city soot."
-- Marie Winn, Red-Tails in Love
Funereal comes from Latin funereus, from funus, funer-, "a funeral, a burial."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for funereal
