What ’s the difference between a coffin and a casket ? To the mean person , credibly nothing – but to funeral film director of the past , the difference was a key part of their marketing . As human funerary practices grew more complex , we moved from the sort of wrapper seen in Egyptian mummies to baskets . However , as culture exchange , so too did some multitude ’s discomfort around the dead .
Coffin come from the French for “ fiddling handbasket ” ( cofin ) which was finally adopted to distinguish sarcophaguses . The construction of casket afterwards became more defined , referring to a hexagonal - forge box with six sides that were slant outwards to allow room for shoulders and tapered in to better fit the narrow pes - death of the human body .
These six - sided boxes were satisfactory for salt away human bodies as they journeyed to their final resting places , but in some piece of the world they fell out of style . Why ? In part , because not everybody like to be reminded that they ’re standing over adead bodywhen mourning at a funeral .
" coffin " is call up to have first been used to describe small , cosmetic , bureau - like storage piece which might have been used for valuable and treasured self-command . Though the meaning of casket has in some shoes been extended to treat coffin , the crucial difference – as recognise by funeral directors of the time , at least – was that casket were four - side with a rectangular form , and often marketed as being more decorative .
This contrast against the six - sided arrangement of coffin which some consider less distinguished and a scrap grim owe to how it outline the soma of the dead body inside .
As English and American Literature , Folklore , and Film Studies LibrarianJeanne C. Ewertwrote : “ The word coffin itself was a euphemism used by the emerging funeral diligence to discern itself and its precious contents from the vulgar coffin that could be bump out by any carpenter . ”
The hope was that citizenry would be more sold on a jewel casket which presumably keep them at a more comfortable aloofness from the idea of their own fatality rate , and looked a bit nicer – but not everybody was sold .
This switch was a “ needless euphemism touch by undertakers ” according to keep cynic Ambrose Bierce whose 1909 plant on vulgar were republished by Jan Freeman in 2009 . “ Naturally , jewel casket fill with the sneer that euphemisms often provoke , ” wroteFreeman . “ [ Nathaniel ] Hawthorne , in 1863 , forebode casket ' a vile innovative phrase , which compels a person … to shrink … from the idea of being swallow ’ . ”
“ Other critic called jewel casket ostentatious . Perhaps , suggest Edward S. Gould in Good English ( 1867 ) , the obituary writer who uses the discussion is ' intimate that a man in a ‘ coffin ’ is not quite so dead as a man in a casket ’ . ”
As the vocal goes , it ’s your political party and you could get buried in a coffin ( or a casket ) if you want to . Just do n’t enjoin Bierce about it .
[ H / T : Mentalfloss ]
