funeral pyre
4
8.2
- noun
- /ˈfjuːnərəl paɪər/
:
pira funeraria
- They built a large funeral pyre by the river to perform the final rites for their ancestor.
- build a funeral pyre
- light the funeral pyre
- funeral pyre burned
Examples
-
I will mourn their passing with a funeral pyre befitting a god.
Blog text (16) -
Siegfried dies and Brünnhilde throws herself on his funeral pyre.
-
Build me a funeral pyre.
-
You shall come with me to the funeral pyre.
-
You who ran away from the funeral pyre!
Fiction book (1990) -
In India, the closest attendant to the deceased then lights the funeral pyre.
Academic text (2001) -
In India, burning a widow on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband assured the immediate inheritance of property by the sons.
Academic text (1990) -
Rather than continue to suffer Chandan's abuse, Deeti chooses instead to become a sati—to commit suicide on her husband's funeral pyre.
Academic text (2018) -
During the ceremony, family members gathered around the funeral pyre to honor their loved one.
-
In some cultures, the body is placed on a funeral pyre as a traditional way to say goodbye.
Synonyms
13
9.0
A pile of wood used to burn a dead body at a funeral
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'funeral' (a ceremony for the dead) modifies 'pyre' (a pile of wood for cremating the deceased), so together they denote a wood pile used in a funeral cremation. This modifier+noun pattern is standard and conceptually straightforward across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun funeral pyre means a pile of wood where a dead person's body is burned at a funeral; the word pyre is the wooden stack used for the fire. Imagine the body placed on the wooden pile and set on fire — that clear image explains why the phrase refers to this way of 'sending someone off' after death.