wake

[edgayle]

Why is the noun, wake, used to describe a watch held over the body of a dead person prior to burial?

[BigMac]

I understand that before modern medicine and death certificates etc, a watch was held over the 'dead' person to ensure they actually were dead before burial and that they did not 'wake up'.

[Quizmonster]

The word, 'wake' in this sense comes from the Old English word 'wacu', meaning 'a watch' as in night-watch...ie a form of vigil. It often referred to the eve of a religious feast-day, when believers would stay awake all night, often combined with fasting, in preparation for the great occasion.
In somewhat later times, the idea had more to do with feasting than fasting! Hence, the Irish idea of a wake at which food is available and drink flows freely.
Accordingly, I'd say it was more of a religious observance than a precaution against someone's being buried alive!

[BigMac]

Just to clarify (Source: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia� Copyright � 2005, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/)

wake, watch kept over a dead body, usually during the night preceding burial .... Ancient peoples in various parts of the world observed the custom. As an ancient ritual, it was rooted in a concern that no person should be buried alive. After it was adopted by Christians and as it is practiced today, the wake serves the primary purpose of allowing friends and relatives of the deceased an opportunity to adjust collectively to the changed conditions. Typically there are traditional songs and laments. Prayers for the deceased and eating and drinking by the assembled mourners are features of the wake. Wakes may vary from part of one night to three nights in length.

[BigMac]

Oh, and this too:

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock people out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial (Dead drunk). They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather round and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up, hence the custom of holding a wake.

[Quizmonster]

Obviously, I have nothing against the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia...after all, I've never even heard of it...it's just that I choose to place more reliance on The Oxford English Dictionary. The latter is universally regarded as the 'bible' of English word meanings, history and development. It makes no mention of a wake being a safeguard against being buried alive. But let's just agree to differ, BM.

[Quizmonkey]

A full account of the possibilities and myths is given in teh book 'POSH - Port Out Starboard Home' by Michael Quinion - 'wake' has its own entry.

[pablo1318]

I did some research on the fact that the dead were watched over for a while before burial, and this was supposed to have come about because there was a practice in the early 18th century of digging up the dead and then burning them.This is where the word "Bonfire" comes from it is a shortened version of "Bonefire".The other fact that came to light with this practice was that there were often scratch marks on the inside of the coffins indicating the fact that people were buried alive, the practice of putting a cord around the wrist was adopted and this was taken to the surface and connected to a bell hench the origin of the phrase "saved by the bell" which pre dates Boxing.

[Quizmonster]

I'm afraid, Pablo, that the 18th century is much too late for the watching over the dead to have originated. The word 'wake' was first used to mean such a watch 400 years earlier. Also, when the 'resurrectionists' started digging up bodies to sell to doctors for medical research, such bodies had clearly already been buried. Thus, a bit too late for relatives to do any watching!