'Pyre' preserves PIE's sacred fire word — *peh2wr. Returning the dead to the element the ancients revered.
A large pile of combustible material, especially one used for burning a corpse as part of a funeral rite.
From Latin 'pyra,' from Greek 'pyrá' (a funeral pyre, a fire), from 'pŷr' (fire), from PIE *péh₂wr̥ (fire). The word was borrowed into English as a learned term in the seventeenth century, principally through classical literature describing Greek and Roman funeral customs. The construction and burning of pyres was a central ritual in many Indo-European
The word 'empyrean' — meaning the highest heaven, the realm of pure fire in medieval cosmology — derives from Greek 'empýrios' (in fire), from 'en' (in) plus 'pŷr' (fire). Medieval theologians placed God in the 'empyrean' — the sphere of celestial fire beyond the stars. The same fire root that names
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