vivisepulture

Definition

The practice of burying someone alive.

Etymology

From Latin vivus (“alive”) + sepulture.

Example Sentences

• "Thus, to characterize the Victorian worry about premature burial as a product of 'morbid romanticism,' or of the 'sheer mythopoeic force' of vivisepulture, is to ignore the deep confusion over human physiology that persisted into the twentieth century."
• "As in most hot climates so in Egypt the dead are buried at once despite the risk of vivisepulture. This seems an instinct with the Semitic (Arabian) race teste Abraham, as with the Gypsy."