cerement common?

[mkenuk]

cerement (from the 'temperance' 10-letter game).

I doubt if there are many people (myself included) who would have been able (without consulting a dictionary) to define this word before playing the game. It's vaguely familiar, but I really can't say from where - some gloomy Jacobean tragedy perhaps?.

A suitable case for interment and downgrading?.

MK

[pat]

Definitely.

[birdy]

I vaguely knew it and associated it with funeral garb, but have no idea why I know it - probably from something poetical.  Hardly common, though.

[rogue_mother]

I had to look it up after missing it. I would certainly agree that it should not be classified as common.

[mkenuk]

. It's vaguely familiar, but I really can't say from where - some gloomy Jacobean tragedy perhaps?.

.

MK

Funny how these odd words have a habit of turning up when you're not expecting them......

 'Say why thy canonised bones, hearsed in death
Have burst their cerements...,'

('Hamlet')

Thank you, Mr Branagh! I still don't think it should be common.
 

MK

[Alan W]

There really is nothing further to be said about this one. Cerement will be treated as rare in future.