epitaphology

English

Etymology

From epitaph +‎ -ology.

Noun

epitaphology (uncountable)

1. The study of epitaphs.
   • 1880 October 5, “Marriage: Was the Subject of Talmage’s Sunday Morning Sermon, Taking for His Text the Passage from Genesis, “This is Bone of My Bone and Flesh of My Flesh.” […]”, in The Memphis Daily Appeal, volume XXXIX, number 236, Memphis, Tenn., section “Hasty and Reckless Words”, page 3, column 4:

     Flattering epitaphology, though Drydens composed it, and polished Aberdeen granite, though Angelos chiseled it, could never atone for unkindnesses to the living.

   • 1987, “Epiphany xi”, in Barry Callaghan, transl., Flowers of Ice, Toronto, Ont.: Exile Editions, translation of original by Imants Ziedonis, →ISBN, page 103:

     At least consider what you’d write in your own will, or on your own stone. It could happen, after all, in 50 year, as your hour draws near, there’ll be a sociological sub-section – epitaphology – the study of your documented life: socio-ethical values decipherable in your tombstone script – and whether you deserve burial in a cemetery, in this enormous bibliographical bastion, or back behind the dam, as soulless pagans were.

   • 2006, Literature of the Graveyard (Studies in the Literary Imagination; volume 39, number 1), page 93:

     In the field of epitaphology, Dr. Johnson opens his essay on the subject by adhering to the familiar topos of claiming new territory for critical exploration: […]

Derived terms

• epitaphologist