Columbarium

Origin

From Latin columbārium.

Noun

1. a dovecote; one of the pigeonholes in a dovecote
2. a large, sometimes architecturally impressive building for housing a large colony of pigeons, particularly those of ancien regime France.
3. (by extension) a building, a vault or some similar place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns containing cremated remains, or a niche in such a place
• 1873: and an unknown translator, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, part 2We have seen how it is originally language which works on the construction of concepts, a labor taken over in later ages by science. Just as the bee simultaneously constructs cells and fills them with honey, so science works unceasingly on this great columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of perceptions.
• 2004: The columbarium (vaults lined with recesses for cinerary urns) in the form of a grotto (a cave-like structure) is the centerpiece of the Elks plot.