sepulchre n.

also lacrymose, 1660s, "tear-like," from Latin lacrimosus "tearful, sorrowful, weeping," also "causing tears, lamentable," from lacrima, lacryma "a tear," a dialect-altered borrowing of Greek dakryma "a tear," from dakryein "to shed tears, weep, lament with tears," from dakry "a tear" (from PIE *dakru- "tear;" see tear (n.1)). Meaning "given to tears, tearful" is first attested 1727; meaning "of a mournful character" is from 1822. Related: Lachrymosely.

The -d- to -l- alteration in Latin is the so-called "Sabine -L-"; compare Latin olere "smell," from root of odor, and Ulixes, the Latin form of Greek Odysseus. The Medieval Latin practice of writing -ch- for -c- before Latin -r- also altered anchor, pulchritude, sepulchre. The -y- is pedantic, from the former belief that the word was pure Greek. Earlier in the same sense was lachrymental (1620s). Middle English had lacrymable "tearful" (mid-15c.).

1610s, "of or pertaining to a burial, burial customs, or a place of burial," from Latin sepulcralis "of a tomb, sepulchral," from sepulcrum (see sepulchre) + -al (1). Transferred sense of "gloomy, suggestive of a graveyard or tomb" is from 1711. Related: Sepulchrally.

"burial, interment," early 14c., from Old French sepulture, sepouture "tomb, coffin" (12c.) and directly from Latin sepultura "burial, funeral obsequies," from sepult-, past-participle stem of sepelire "to bury" (see sepulchre). In Middle English it was confused with sepulchre. Related: Sepultural.