Talk:Graveyard

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[edit] Cemetery vs graveyard

A cemetery, a graveyard and a churchyard are often confused with eachother and many people think they are the same thing or very similiar to eachother. In reality, they are 3 completely seperate things with 3 different definitions. This is why I haved expanded 3 seperate wiki articles. Amorfati00 20:43, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

You did not include any references with your statements. Every dictionary (two below and 7 online) that I have checked placed cemeteries and graveyards as synonymous with one another.

Examples:

  1. Websters New Thesaurus
    1. graveyard n syn SEE cemetery
    2. cemetery n a piece of land used for burying the dead syn boneyard, boothill, burial ground, burying ground, God's acre, graveyard, memorial park, necropolis, polyandrium, potter's field rel churchyard, catacomb idiom city of the dead
  2. The Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus
    1. graveyard n burial ground syn churchyard, cemetery, potter's field, boneyard
    2. cemetery n burial ground SEE graveyard

In order for these statements to remain in the articles they need to have verifiable references.Altairisfar 06:53, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

The (Shorter) OED gives:

 cemetery: Late Latin coemeterium from Greek koimeterion dormity, from koman put to sleep.
   1 a place used for burials; esp. a usu. large area of public ground belonging to a town, city, etc. and laid out for the interment of the dead.  LME
   (obsolete) 2. a churchyard
 graveyard: a burial ground.

...so, according to the OED, a "graveyard" is any burial ground - which would seem to include churchyards, cemeteries, Native American burial mounds, etc. From what I've read (no cite at the moment, sorry), it seems that "cemetery" came about as a marketing term in the mid-1800s, as operators of the newer style of graveyards wanted to distinguish their offering from mouldering old churchyards. The cycle repeated itself in the mid-1900s when the term "memorial park" came about. Doubtless they'll introduce another term in the 21st century. I propose that we remove the unverifiable statements in the article. ("Graveyard" is my preferred term, as evidenced by my website, www.graveyards.com) MattHucke(t) 19:51, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Grave yard

Grave yard is where you burry people , like who passed away. and you go there for having a free chat to them, about how they feel. no one shouldnt be scared, because there aint no god —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.241.209.167 (talk) 05:40, 5 May 2008 (UTC)