A listener inquiry about the word undertaker got us musing over things funereal. We begin our undertaking with a look at the somewhat surprising history of the word undertaker. Surprising? Well, for starters, that word's most familiar sense, the one synonymous with funeral director, is the only one with a strong emphasis on the first syllable. In every other sense of the word, the emphasis is on taker.

That makes sense when you consider the original sense of undertaker: "one who undertakes," particularly someone (like an entrepreneur) who undertakes the risk and management of business.

Once folks undertook to coin the undertaker word, they were quick to find additional applications for it. Soon, undertaker was being used to refer to someone engaged in a scholarly or scientific exploration, or to someone compiling and composing a book for publication. Undertaker could also name a book publisher or the organizer of a stage production. Those senses have now died out, but two other senses born in the 17th century still live on. The first names an Englishman who took over ownership of forfeited lands in Ireland during the 16th and 17th centuries; the second, of course, is the sense we began with: someone whose business it is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals.

The Undertaker is a wrestler in the WWE.