I’ve wondered this before but recently, watching the pope’s services, both have been used. On CNN, two separate reporters both discussed his burial, while one used coffin, the other said casket. (Not the same report, about an hour apart)
I remember when my mother passed, the term coffin seemed somewhat disrespectful or morbid. I guess I related coffins to vampires.
Why would someone use one opposed to another? Is there a difference?
I think this calls for a googlefight.
Like you, I’ve seen both used. My Webster’s new collegiate suggests that casket = fancy coffin. that is borne out by my own connotations, in that when “coffin” I think of something more simple. Given what i understand about papal burials, simple is the very idea they’re going for, at least with the cypress coffin. So while it may not make a lot of difference, I think “coffin” may be more accurate.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard any non-American use of ‘casket’. So maybe it’s partly just yet another transatlantic difference.
my thinking is: casket has handles carried by hand, coffin goes on shoulders (no handles).
Moderator’s Note: Moving to General Questions.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a coffin as “[a]n oblong box in which a corpse is buried”, and a casket as “a coffin”. However, the Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that a coffin is “a box or chest for a corpse to be buried in formerly often of a hexagonal or wedge shape, wider at the head than at the foot”, whereas a casket is “a usually ornamented and lined rectangular box or chest for a corpse to be buried in”–so if it’s shaped like this, it’s a coffin. Both dictionaries agree that a casket can also be a small, ornamented box for jewels and the like.
It seems to me that I have heard the term “casket” used for boxes that hold things other than bodies. One example is in “The Hobbit”, where Gandalf presents a “casket” that holds the Arkenstone. This usage is perhaps a bit archaic, but the implication seems to be a box custom-built to hold a specific object, rather than just a random box that you have thrown something into.
Thus, coffins are caskets, but not all caskets are coffins?
Twasn’t the cough that carried him off.
But the coffin they carried him off in.
What did one casket say to the other casket?
Is that you coughin'?I remembered an interesting dialect survey map that included this question.
http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_90.html
I’d agree. I’d always assumed that *casket * was simply the Americanised form of coffin.
I call it a waste of resources. Wrap the corpse in burlap; it’s being buried anyway.
The traditional term is “coffin.” Morticians & the overly-nice may say “casket,” which is a term for boxes in general, as a euphemism.
<simpsons>
“I want the works: a coffin, a tombstone, anti-stink spray…”
“Sir, we prefer the term casket to coffin, and monument to tombstone. We have a full selection of anti-stink sprays.”
</simpsons>
I have even noticed that “casket” is used in the UK by morticians/ undertakers/ funeral -directors . Everyone else says “coffin”.
An episode of Hands On History (History Channel) answered this very question while touring the Batesville Casket Company . They said the difference is that a coffin is six-sided with a bend at the shoulders, and a casket is four-sided. I can’t remember exactly why the coffin became unpopular, other than the obvious: caskets are easier to construct.
Quite an interesting show.
Also known as a toe-pincher.
Cool site!
Luxury. We used to dream of bein’ buried in burlap!
In common American usage it’s like automobile and car. Two words for the same thing.
I don’t know whether this is really a hijack or not, but here goes…
A friend of mine was trying to explain to me once that when someone is buried in a wooden coffin, the coffin is placed in a metal box before being interred. This is to seal the body and prevent it from decomposing into the water table. I have thankfully not buried anyone yet so I had never heard of this.
He racked his brain (and Google) to find the name for this box, but never found it. Anyone know? Also, is this a common practice worldwide or only in certain areas or cemetaries?
One term for it is a burial vault. Such vaults are usually concrete.