A newspaper article announcing someone's death and describing their life and accomplishments.
From Latin obit 'he/she died' (from obire 'to die,' literally 'to go toward'). Shortened from obituary in English journalism, first used in this shortened form in the 19th century.
The Latin root literally means 'to go toward death,' which is morbid but elegant—obituaries became a crucial literary form where newspapers essentially wrote final judgments on people's lives, making a journalist's obit an unofficial legacy document more powerful than any gravestone.
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