Other forms: pallbearers
A pallbearer is somebody who helps carry a coffin at a funeral. Act as a pallbearer.
It is usually six people, and being asked is treated as an honour and a duty. The pall was the cloth over the coffin, which the bearers once held rather than the coffin itself.
1nounpallbearerSomebody who helps carry a coffin at a funeral.
“He was a pallbearer for three friends in one year.”
pallbearer is a person.
Pall plus bearer; the pall is the cloth spread over a coffin.
From pall + bearer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA