mortician

[ mawr-tish-uh n ]

/ mɔrˈtɪʃ ən /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR mortician ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

funeral director.

RELATED WORDS

embalmer

Nearby words

Origin of mortician

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; mort(uary) + -ician

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for mortician

Horace had been playing poker with a mortician, who had put the car up as collateral.
Those Kansas City Blues: A Family History|Katie Baker|October 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Though Father Gary did spend a summer working with a mortician.
What's Real in The Rite|Seth Colter Walls|January 31, 2011|DAILY BEAST
I remember one who was studying to become a mortician and he got several very expensive books on the subject.
The Biography of a Rabbit|Roy Benson
The really smart way nowadays of bidding good-bye to the world is to go to the establishment of a "mortician."
Turns about Town|Robert Cortes Holliday

Here I discovered that to the mind of the mortician towels belong to the Dark Ages.
Turns about Town|Robert Cortes Holliday
He had to go back and take the sleeping medicine to be ready for the arrival of the mortician in the morning.
No Strings Attached|Lester del Rey
Marry Miss Dutton, and you'll be a scarecrow within a year, and require the services of the mortician within two!
Bunch Grass|Horace Annesley Vachell

British Dictionary definitions for mortician

mortician

/ (mɔːˈtɪʃən) /

noun

mainly US another word for undertaker

Word Origin for mortician

C19: from mortuary + -ician, as in physician

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mortician

mortician

1895, American English, coined from mortuary + -ician, as in physician.

An undertaker will no longer be known as an "undertaker and embalmer." In the future he will be known as the "mortician." This was decided on at the second day's meeting of the Funeral Directors' Association of Kentucky, which was held in Louisville. ["The Medical Herald," July 1895]