Shroud
SHROUD (O. Eng. scrud, garment; cf. Icel. skrudh, in the secondary sense of rigging, allied with " shred," O. Eng. screade, a piece, strip), originally a word meaning garment, clothing or covering, but now particularly applied to the garment in which a dead body is wrapped preparatory to burial, a winding sheet. The shroud is usually a long linen sheet wrapping the entire body. This was formerly dipped in melted wax (Lat. cera), whence the name " cerecloth," often wrongly writtep serecloth or searcloth and " cerements." In nautical usage tht Icelandic meaning of skrudh, tackle, rigging of a ship, has been adopted in English; the "shrouds" of a ship are the set of ropes which stretch from the heads of a ship's masts to the sides as supports (see RIGGING).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
