corsepresent

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

corse +‎ present

Noun[edit]

corsepresent (plural corsepresents)

  1. (UK, law, historical) An offering made to the church at the interment of a dead body.
    • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: [] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
      It was anciently usual to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it came to be buried ; and thence it is sometimes called a corsepresent: a term which bespeaks it to have been once a voluntary donation

Anagrams[edit]