vivisepulture

English

Etymology

From Latin vivus (“alive”) + sepulture.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌvɪvɪˈsɛpəlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/, /ˌvɪvɪˈsɛpəltjʊə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

vivisepulture (uncountable)

1. The practice of burying someone alive.
   • 2003 April, Journal of British Studies:

     Thus, to characterize the Victorian worry about premature burial as a product of 'morbid romanticism,' or of the 'sheer mythopoeic force' of vivisepulture, is to ignore the deep confusion over human physiology that persisted into the twentieth century.

   • 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

     As in most hot climates so in Egypt the dead are buried at once despite the risk of vivisepulture. This seems an instinct with the Semitic (Arabian) race teste Abraham, as with the Gypsy.

     The quoted passage is in the author's footnotes