death-huntern.
/ˈdɛθhʌntə/, U.S. /ˈdɛθˌhən(t)ər/ slang (depreciative). Now historical.
A person whose work relates to or profits from deaths; spec. (a) an undertaker; (b) an obituary writer for a newspaper; (c) a seller of dying speeches or deathbed confessions; (d) a robber of corpses on a battlefield.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journalist > [noun] > writer of obituaries
death-hunter1723
obituarist1792
necrographer1861
obituarian1909
the world > life > death > obsequies > people involved in funeral > [noun] > undertaker
undertaker1698
upholder1709
death-hunter1723
black master1823
funeral director1834
mortician1895
black man1927
thanatologist1972
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > robber > sacker, raider, or looter > [noun] > robber of slain
pick-harnessc1400
death-hunter1802
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > sellers of specific things > [noun] > seller of books, newspapers, or pamphlets > types of
bawdy-basket1567
ballad-monger1598
land-pirate1608
map-monger1639
bookwoman1647
mercury1648
second-hand bookseller1656
Bible-seller1707
map-seller1710
stall-man1761
book auctioneer1776
scrap-monger1786
colporteur1796
death-hunter1851
train boy1852
speech-crier1856
roarer1865
looker-out1894
1723 Democritus (ed. 2) 23 The Undertaker, alias (Death-hunter) will cheat both the Quick and the Dead.
1738 (title) A ramble through London: containing observations on men and things, viz...The insufferable Behaviour of City 'prentices. Practices of Death-Hunters; [etc.].
1776 Gen. Evening Post 20 Aug. The good father was death-hunter to the same paper.
a1777 S. Foote Capuchin (1778) ii. 112 When you were the doer of the Scandalous Chronicle, was not I death-hunter to the very same paper?
1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. sig. pp3v Death Hunters, followers of an army, who, after the engagement look for dead bodies, in order to strip them.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 214/2 The ‘running patterers’, or ‘death-hunters’; being men..engaged in vending last dying speeches and confessions.
1895 S. L. Yeats Honour of Savelli viii. 99 Stricken down at San Miniato, I saw, in the dim night, the death hunters at their fearful trade.
1919 B. J. Beyer tr. G. Roupnel Nono iii. v. 217 As was customary, the men who had just been present at the burial stopped at the café. ‘Here are the death-hunters!’ the people gayly shouted at them.
1989 D. Vincent Literacy & Pop. Culture (1993) vi. 200 The long song and wall song sellers and the death hunters might all enjoy bouts of good fortune when a new item suddenly caught the public fancy.
2001 J. Andrews Undertaker of Mind p. xix Contemporary undertakers were frequently condemned as ‘death hunters’ and ‘cold cooks’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1723