Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Sepulcre, n. Also: sepulkyr, sepulchre, sepulchere, (seplucher), sepulchree, sepulchrie. [ME sepulcre (c1200), sepulchre (c1290), sepulcure (c1440), e.m.E. sepulcher (1590), OF sepulcre (c1120 in Larousse), L. sepulcrum (also, sepulchrum) a tomb, a funerary monument. Cf. Sepultur(e n.]

1. A burial plot; a grave or tomb; (once) a graveyard. Sepultur(e n. 2.(1) 1513 Doug. x xiii 163.
Onto thy parentis handis and sepulcre I thé belief tobe entyrit 1576 Bk. Univ. Kirk I 373.
It is thoght meitt that in every parochin ther be persons appointed to break the earth and to make sepulchres 1595 Edinb. Test. XXVIII 168b.
My bodie to be bureit in the commoun holf and sepulchere of the said burcht 1596 Dalr. I 294.
He visited the sepulchrie and reliques of S. Palladie 1606 Birnie Kirk-b. x.
That sepulchrall monster that Queene Artimise made to her husband Mousolus … (from whom the rest of the ranke of sepluchers were named mausolies)(2) 1587-99 Hume 36/60.
In sepulchree the corps sall sleiping ly

b. The Holy Sepulchre, the site of Christ's burial at Jerusalem. c1420 Wynt. ii 1674.
Pylgrymys … That to Jerusalem walde fayre The sepulkyr to wysyde thare

2. A funeral pile or pyre. 1513 Doug. vi iii 40.
For the sepulcre funerale fyre or byng Ane hepe of treis thai pres onone to dycht