Why “Comb” in “Comb Graves”?

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Julia and I’m calling from Denver, Colorado.

Welcome to the show, Julia. What can we do for you today?

So I have a question, kind of a spooky question, about comb graves.

My parents and I were vacationing in central Tennessee and we discovered that there’s a really unique type of grave in that region.

And they’re called comb graves, C-O-M-B.

And we were so curious what the origin of that name was.

Comb graves. How did you come across them?

We were driving through some of the smaller towns in that region,

And we saw them referenced on the historical plaque.

So we decided to adventure and find one of the cemeteries where they’re found.

Yeah, and that part of Tennessee is particularly known for the comb graves.

So describe them for us if you can.

What do they look like?

Yeah, so they’re also referred to as tent graves, which makes a little bit more sense because they’re kind of pitched like a tent, like a little triangle over like the actual grave itself.

But we were so curious why the word comb is also used to describe them.

So typically they have two long rectangular slabs of stone kind of leaning together to form a long peaked roof over the grave, right?

Yeah.

And yeah, the central Tennessee is well known for them, although they do appear in nearby states as well.

So this word comb, C-O-M-B, here is an American dialect word, and it does refer to that ridge of the roof where there’s two long slabs come together.

And that and other meanings of comb all descend from the rooster’s comb.

You know, that red thing that sticks up on the top of the head?

So it kind of has, like, wobbly fingers.

But the part of that red comb on a rooster’s head that is transferred isn’t the wobbly fingers, but it’s the sticky up part.

And so that lent that kind of semantic notion to the ridge of a roof.

And it’s used in architecture as well, not just in this word for a grave.

It’s also used, for example, in the ridge of earth sticking up between the ruts and a dirt road, if you’ve ever seen that.

Ridge of earth in the middle that’s a little grassy in between the ruts, that’s also known

As a comb. That’s pretty interesting, I think, that the comb comes from the rooster’s comb.

Fascinating. So it’s like making a little house for eternity. I mean, I’ve seen versions of house

Graves in Alaska where they’re much more elaborate than that. They actually look like little houses.

The roof shape has to do with suggesting a home?

Well, there’s a fellow by the name of Dr. Richard C. Finch who’s done a great deal of work on cone graves.

And I have read a couple of his papers on this.

And he doesn’t know, and others don’t know quite why folks started doing it, the earliest appear in around the 1820s.

But it suggests that it’s perhaps more practical than that.

It’s just to keep the weather and critters off the graves.

Just kind of a real basic notion.

By the way, you can read his papers and see tons of pictures of comb graves on his website at greatrutabaga.com.

That’s G-R-A-T-E-R-U-T-A-B-A-G-A.com.

His paper, The Tennessee Comb Grave Tradition, is fascinating and very readable to people of all academic levels.

Wow, I’m going to have to look that up.

Yeah, that’s Dr. Richard C. Finch.

Yeah, and we’ll link to that on our website as well.

So I hope that helps, Julia.

I’m kind of jealous.

I would love to travel through Central Tennessee visiting small towns.

I’m sure they’re fascinating.

Well, I highly recommend it.

They were really cool to see in person.

Well, Julia, we appreciate your call.

All right.

Take care now.

Be well.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Sure thing.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

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