Everything we know about 'bier'
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bier
/beer/
• noun a movable platform on which a coffin or corpse is placed before burial.
— ORIGIN Old English, related to BEAR1.
A bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials, used to carry a corpse for burial in a funeral procession. In antiquity it was often simply a wooden board on which the dead was placed covered with a shroud. In modern times, however, the corpse is almost never carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin, though the coffin is sometimes kept open.
- Catafalque
bier Definition
bier (bir)
noun
- a platform or portable framework on which a coffin or corpse is placed
- a coffin and its supporting platform
Etymology: ME bere < OE bær: for IE base see bear
bier
noun: a stand to support a corpse or a coffin prior to burial
noun: a coffin along with its stand (Example: "We followed the bier to the graveyard")
name: A surname (rare: 1 in 100000 families; popularity rank in the U.S.: #14981)
noun: a stand to support a corpse or a coffin prior to burial
noun: a coffin along with its stand (Example: "We followed the bier to the graveyard")
name: A surname (rare: 1 in 100000 families; popularity rank in the U.S.: #14981)