English
undertaker
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌteɪkə(ɹ)/, /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈteɪkə(ɹ)/
Noun

undertaker (plural undertakers)

  1. A funeral director; someone whose business is to manage funerals, burials and cremations.
  2. (historical) A person receiving land in Ireland during the Elizabethan era, so named because they gave an undertaking to abide by several conditions regarding marriage, to be loyal to the crown, and to use English as their spoken language.
    In 1588, Edmund Spenser became an undertaker in the first Elizabethan plantation, receiving the forfeited Irish estate of Kilcolman Castle.
  3. (historical) A contractor for the royal revenue in England, one of those who undertook to manage the House of Commons for the king in the Addled Parliament of 1614.
  4. (rare) One who undertakes or commits to doing something.
    • 2001, Technology, Humans, and Society: Toward a Sustainable World
      The undertaker of the enterprise is usually known today by the French term entrepreneur because we have surrendered the English word to the undertakers of funerals.
Related terms Translations
  • French: croque-mort
  • German: Bestatter, Bestatterin, Leichenbestatter, Leichenbestatterin, Beerdigungsunternehmer,, Beerdigungsunternehmerin
  • Italian: impresario di pompe funebri
  • Portuguese: agente funerário
  • Russian: дире́ктор похоро́нного бюро́
  • Spanish: director de funeraria
Translations

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