English

Noun

cinerarium ‎(plural cineraria)

1. A place or receptacle for depositing the ashes of cremated people.
   • 1842, Charles Wellbeloved, Eburacum, or York under the Romans, page 100:

     They were called ossuaria, from their containing bones,—cineraria, in reference to their containing ashes,—or ollæ, pots; these had generally a narrow pointed bottom.

   • 1881, John Henry Parker, The Via Sacra. Excavations in Rome from 1438 to 1882, page 156:

     On a great marble cinerarium (or vase for human ashes) is an inscription.

   • 1918, William James Perry, The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, page 42:

     After cremation the Khasi take the ashes of their dead to the clan cinerarium.

   • 2016, Lewis H. Mates, Encyclopedia of Cremation:

     Relevant material is also covered on the containers for remains in those and in the entries on cineraria, columbaria, and urns.

Related terms

• cinerary

See also

• columbarium

Latin

Etymology

From cinis ‎(“cold ashes”) +‎ -ārium.

Noun

cinerārium n ‎(genitive cinerāriī); second declension

1. cinerarium

Inflection

Second declension.

References

• cinerarium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• CINERARIUM in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “cinerarium”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• cinerarium in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers