moirologist
English edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek μοῖρα (moîra, “fate”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration”).
Noun edit
moirologist (plural moirologists)
- (rare) A professional mourner.
- 1886, “The Greek Islanders”, in The Quarterly Review, Volume 163, page 215, July & October 1886:
- The moirologists will sing of the loneliness of the living, of the horrors of death, of the black earth, and the cold dreary frozen Hades; and, in the strange language of hyperbole, in which they love to indulge, they will wonder how the sun could venture to shine on so lamentable a scene as the one before them.
- 2009 May 20, Samantha Weaver, “Strange But True”, in The Mountain Eagle:
- Even as recently as the early 1900s, there was a report of a moirologists' strike in Paris.
- 2009, Jeff Regensburger, "CAW: Creating Our History", Columbus Underground, 7 April 2012:
- Cancel the eulogies and send the moirologists home. We don’t need them just yet. It turns out the death of the Columbus art scene was an exaggeration after all.
- 2023, A. C. MacDonald, Twistwood Tales (comic), Andrews McMeel, →ISBN, page 85:
- You simply have to imagine the sad baby is wailing on your behalf, expressing the grief and despair you have buried deep, deep within yourself. Somewhat akin to an infant moirologist. It vents for we cannot, due to society's scorn.