Talk:pall

It seems to me that Etymology 1, Item 3, about the heavy canvas covering for a coffin is "close but no cigar" for pall as used in pallbearer. That usage seems to be the coffin itself. Dick Kimball 12:26, 5 June 2008 (UTC)


 * There can't be much dispute about pall's etymology. What seems to have happened is that the meaning of pallbearer has shifted. MW3, for example, indicates an archaic sense of a cloth-carrying attendant at a funeral who carried a corner of the pall, a current sense of a honorary non-bearing pallbearer who merely accompanies the casket, as well as the current sense of casket-bearer. DCDuring TALK 17:57, 17 June 2008 (UTC)