Corpse House (Funeral Home)

Posted by ESC on January 14, 2005

In Reply to: Corpse House (Funeral Home) posted by Brian from Shawnee on January 13, 2005

: Apparently in certain parts of Northeatern Pennsylvania a funeral home is called a "corpse house". This is apparently a colloquial expression used by older folks, which you wouldn't see printed in a newspaper, etc. Our local nutty weatherman used the term on TV this morning.

: Another old-fashioned name is "funeral parlor". It's formal rather than colloquial, but you don't hear that one much anymore.

I've looked in every regional slang dictionary I own and couldn't find "corpse house." Namely the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the Dictionary of American Regional English, and the Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast.

Why was a weatherman talking about a corpse house? Cold as a corpse house maybe?

• Corpse House (Funeral Home) ESC 14/January/05