Since we have a single word like birthday, is there a corresponding term for the date of someone’s death?
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Since we have a single word like birthday, is there a corresponding term for the date of someone’s death?
Best Answer
I think the closest word is obit, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "A record or notice of a person's death, or of the date of it; (also, occas.) the date itself" (sense 1(b)), and further as "An office or service, usually a mass, held to pray for the soul of or otherwise commemorate a deceased person ... on the anniversary of his or her death, or at some other appointed time; a yearly or other regular memorial service" (sense 2(a)).
The second definition, referring to a yearly commemoration, shows that "obit" is a reasonably good analogue for death of "birthday" for birth.
EDIT: The OED also gives obit day, which might be a closer analogue (yes, it's not a single word...). An example quotation from the OED, dated 1995, is: "The communar account rolls record that £1 was spent on his obit day between 1347 and 1536." However, if you allow two-word analogues, the OED also defines death day as "The anniversary of the day or date on which a person died" (sense 2).