coimetro-, coimetr-; koimetro-, koimetr-

1. An area set apart for or containing graves, tombs, or funeral urns; especially, one that is not a churchyard.

A cemetery is a burial ground which is located in a graveyard.

2. Etymology: from Old French cimetiere, "graveyard"; from Late Latin coemeterium, from Greek koimeterion, "sleeping place, dormitory", from koiman, "to put to sleep", keimai, "I lie down".

Early Christian writers were the first to use the term for "burial ground".

Usually, the most common "final resting place" throughout the world is the burial in a cemetery.

An abnormal attraction to and desire to visit cemeteries: There are some people who have coimetromanias that involve compulsions to examine various graves and other burial places whenever they have a chance.

A special fondness and interest in cemeteries or graveyards: There are some coimetrophilias who love to collect epitaphs that are written on the tombstones and a fascination with seeing various gravestones and sarcophagi.

Epitaph collections

Sum quod eris, fui quod sis. "I am what you will be; I was what you are."

A message engraved on tombstones as a reminder to the living as in the following poem:

A response was written on a wooden sign next to the grave stone:

Relating to someone who has a special fondness to visit cemeteries to see the various tombstones, sarcophagi, and related items.

Sarcophagi, subjects of coimetrophiliac interest

Sarcophagus, our term for a stone coffin, or "burial place", located above ground and often decorated, has a terrifying origin befitting a macabre subject. The word comes to us from Latin and Greek, having been derived in Greek from sarx, "flesh", and phagein, "to eat".

The Greek word sarkophagos meant "eating flesh", and in the phrase lithos, "stone"; sarkophagos it represented a limestone that was thought to decompose the flesh of corpses placed in it.

Used by itself as a noun, the Greek term came to mean "coffin". The term was carried over into Latin, where sarcophagus was used in the phrase lapis sarcophagus, referring to the same stone as in Greek.

Sarcophagus, used as a noun in Latin meant "coffin of any material". This Latin word was adopted into English, first being recorded in 1601 with reference to the flesh-consuming stone and then in 1705 with reference to a stone coffin.

An excessive, or abnormal, fear of cemeteries: Those who are possessed with coimetrophobia usually are also afraid of going to funerals, looking at tombstones or dead bodies, or just hearing about funerals.

Some people who have coimetrophobia will drive long distances out of their way to avoid going by such a place reserved for human and animal remains, or they will even walk on the other side of the street to avoid being close to one.