I’ve never paid much attention when authors use cemetery or graveyard, but Ginny Baird’s The Ghost Next Door caught me with Elizabeth’s comment. As for churchyard…I’ve always simply accepted it…and now I get to learn the difference!
My dad is buried in a cemetery across the street from where my mom lives. She likes being close to him. And yeah, it’s one of those standalones that is not affiliated with any particular church.
So, a churchyard has two “identities”. It can be a graveyard or it could simply be land surrounding or incorporated by a church.
Think of all those English villages that pop up in novels with their village church — and there’s always a graveyard attached.
So now, I’ve got that difference buried deep in my mind.
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Cemetery | Churchyard | Graveyard |
|---|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: cemetery, graveyard, and graveyard shift; Lexico.com: graveyard; Cambridge Dictionary: churchyard | ||
Mount Olivet Cemetery by Daniel Lobo is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Fountain in the Churchyard of the Maria Laach Abbey is under the CC0 license, via Max Pixel. |
Bothkennar Parish Church and Graveyard by Kim Traynor is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun Plural: cemeteries |
Noun Plural: churchyards |
Noun 1 2 Plural: graveyards |
| An area set apart for or containing graves, tombs, or funeral urns, especially one that is not a churchyard
A burial ground |
An enclosed area surrounding a church, that may be used for burials | A burial ground, often associated with smaller rural churches, as distinct from a larger urban or public cemetery 1
[Informal; graveyard shift] A work shift usually beginning at about midnight and continuing for about eight hours through the early morning hours 2 A place in which obsolete or derelict objects are kept or placed [Informal; graveyard stew] Milk toast served to sick people [Countable noun; usually followed by for or of] A place or event in which particular people or their hopes have failed |
| Examples: | ||
| On the Day of the Dead, families picnic with their dead in the cemetery.
It was a sad scene at the cemetery as we laid Marissa to rest. Her mother broke down at the gravesite at the cemetery. The procession to the cemetery was a more of a parade. |
Large parts of the northern churchyard were destroyed in order to make space for the basements of the new building.
To a large extent the studies are connected with the church and churchyard. Meanwhile, private commercial cemeteries prospered on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas even as the old churchyards were still being used. Many of the churchyards were quite small, often less than an acre of ground, and had been in use for centuries. These bounds encompassed the churchyard as well as the church and its precinct. They were as overcrowded and ill-equipped to manage bodies as the churchyards. There was one site remaining in the churchyard, and we were allowed to bury Patricia. |
Jamie and his friends tiptoed through the graveyard, hoping the vicar didn’t catch them.
He was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary’s parish church. She cycled on, through the winding streets of the village to the graveyard beside the old stone church. He was buried with full military honors in the graveyard of his local church. Ah man, I hafta work the graveyard shift this week. It was an elephant graveyard, tusks and bones everywhere. There’s so much junk up there, and now we’re moving another satellite into the graveyard orbit. This had once been the greatest port in the world, now it was a graveyard of rusting cranes. There are so many old classic shows in the graveyard slot. America has proved a graveyard for British retailers. When will you stop feeding me this graveyard stew, Mom? |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Noun: kirkyard [Scottish] | Noun: gravedigger, graveside, gravesite, gravestone | |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Late Middle English via the late Latin from the Greek koimētērion meaning dormitory, from koiman meaning put to sleep. | Middle English (1125–75) chirche yeard (church + yard). |
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them…and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions by exploring the index. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, and/or the Properly Punctuated.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Monuments in the Fog is under the CC0 license, via pxhere. Churchyard by terimakasih0 is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay.
