cemetery (n.)

also litch, lych, "body, corpse," a southern England dialectal survival of Old English lic "body, dead body, corpse," from Proto-Germanic *likow (source also of Old Frisian lik, Dutch lijk, Old High German lih, German Leiche "corpse, dead body," Old Norse lik, Danish lig, Swedish lik, Gothic leik), probably originally "form, shape," and identical with like (adj.).

Also in Old English in an expanded form lichama (Middle English licham), with hama "shape, garment, covering." This is etymologically pleonastic, but the image perhaps is of the body as the garment of the soul. The compound has a cognate in Old High German lihhinamo. A litch-gate (also lych-gate) was a roofed gate to a churchyard under which a corpse was set down at a burial to await the arrival of the minister; lich-owl "screech-owl" was so called because it was supposed to forebode death. Old English also had licburg "cemetery," lichhaemleas "incorporeal."

Middle English slep, from Old English slæp "state of quiescence of voluntary and conscious functions; sleepiness, inactivity," from Proto-Germanic *slepaz, from the root of sleep (v.). Compare cognate Old Saxon slap, Old Frisian slep, Middle Dutch slæp, Dutch slaap, Old High German slaf, German Schlaf, Gothic sleps.

By c. 1200 as "a period of sleep." Personified in English from late 14c., on the model of Latin Somnus, Greek Hypnos. Figurative use for "repose of death" was in Old English; euphemistic put (a pet animal) to sleep "kill painlessly" is recorded from 1884 (put to sleep forever). A similar imagery is in cemetery.

Sleep deprivation is attested from 1906. Sleep-walker "somnambulist" is attested from 1747; first record of sleep-walking is from 1797. Sleep apnea is by 1976. To be able to do something in (one's) sleep "easily" is recorded as a hyperbolic phrase by 1953. Sleep apnea is by 1916.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to lie," also forming words for "bed, couch," and with a secondary sense of "beloved, dear."

It forms all or part of: ceilidh; cemetery; city; civic; civil; civilian; civilization; civilize; hide (n.2) measure of land; incivility; incunabula; Siva.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit Sivah "propitious, gracious;" Greek keisthai "to lie, lie asleep;" Latin cunae "a cradle;" Old Church Slavonic semija "family, domestic servants;" Lithuanian šeima "domestic servants," Lettish sieva "wife;" Old English hiwan "members of a household."