Coffin nail
A nail in the coffin is, according to the German dictionary of the brothers Grimm , a "nail in the forge, small with tinned round bunting-provided nail for the coffin."
Use in funeral services
In principle, commercially available nails are used to make a coffin . The conceptually intended coffin nails are only those with which the coffin is locked after the dead man has been laid out. Since the nailing down, which is sometimes still common at the funeral service, is associated with noise, screws with wing handles are supposedly used for this reason today.
The original reason for nailing the coffin is said to be that the earlier burial ritual ended with the deceased being rolled into the grave with a cloth. When wooden coffins became common, the unfastened lids could pop open when rolling into the grave. They were therefore nailed up. For some branches of Orthodox Judaism, the entire coffin must be made of wood. Here, instead of coffin nails, wooden plugs are used.
A coffin nail was considered a taboo object in earlier times . Things forged from it brought bad luck or were used for witchcraft. Anyone dealing with these nails was not particularly well respected. This affected the nail smith as well as the iron worker.
History
In late antiquity , body burial became common practice in the west of the Roman Empire. Nailed wooden coffins can often be found in graves from this period. Investigations of wood residues from the late Roman Rhineland that were corroded on coffin nails show that oak wood was often used in this region.
Use in a figurative sense
- Common phrase for an object that is believed to have caused the death of a person or living being, such as being a coffin nail with someone .
- Colloquial, ironic term for cigarettes , because their use is seen as life-shortening ( every cigarette is a coffin nail ). In addition, the nail-like geometric shape contributes to this name.
- Joking name ( Bundeswehr jargon ) for the Starfighter jet of the Luftwaffe (Bundeswehr) because of the numerous crashes of this type of aircraft.
- Sargnagel , inactive association of Kösener Corps students at the TH Danzig
literature
- IM Levinger: The last way. Regulations, prayers and thoughts on the subject of «death and mourning». Basel 1991.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Coffin nail. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 14 : R - skewness - (VIII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1893, Sp. 1801 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ Renate Pirling, Margareta Siepen: The Roman-Franconian burial ground of Krefeld-Gellep 1989–2000. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-515-07974-2 , p. 52.
- ↑ ceryx.de ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
