cenotaph

views updated May 29 2018

cenotaph a monument to someone buried elsewhere, especially one commemorating people who died in a war; the Cenotaph is the name of the war memorial in Whitehall, London, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and erected in 1919–20. The word is recorded from the early 17th century and comes ultimately, via French and late Latin, from Greek kenos ‘empty’ + taphos ‘tomb’.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ELIZABETH KNOWLES

cenotaph

views updated May 18 2018

ce·no·taph / ˈsenəˌtaf/ • n. a tomblike monument to someone buried elsewhere, esp. one commemorating people who died in a war.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

cenotaph

views updated May 29 2018

cenotaph. Empty sepulchre, or funerary monument to the dead whose bodies lie elsewhere. Lutyens's Cenotaph, Whitehall, London (1919–20), is an example of such a symbolic tomb.

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture JAMES STEVENS CURL

cenotaph

views updated May 23 2018

cenotaph sepulchral monument to a person buried elsewhere. XVII. — F. cénotaphe — late L. cenotaphium — Gr. kenós empty + táphos tomb.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

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