Necropolis
/nɪˈkrɒpəlɪs/noun
A large burial ground, especially an ancient one or a planned cemetery laid out like a town.
The Greek roots
Literally: “city of the dead”
The story of the word
νεκρός plus πόλις, a word Greeks did not use for their own graveyards. Strabo applies it to the burial suburb west of Alexandria, and English revived it in the early 19th century for the new planned cemeteries built when city churchyards became unusable and unsafe. Glasgow's Necropolis opened in 1833 on a hill facing the cathedral. The name carries an argument inside it, that the dead are laid out in streets and quarters, like citizens.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- early 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
The necropolis at Cerveteri has streets, kerbs and house-shaped tombs with carved furniture inside.
They walked up through the necropolis for the view and stayed for the epitaphs.