obituary: [18] Obituary goes back ultimately to a Latin euphemism for ‘die’, meaning literally ‘go down, make an exit’. This was obīre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ob- ‘down’ and īre ‘go’. From it was derived obitus ‘death’, which formed the basis of the medieval Latin adjective obituārius ‘of death’, source of English obituary. A parallel Latin formation was the adverb obiter ‘on the way, in passing along’, based on the noun iter ‘journey’ (a relative of īre and source of English itinerant [16] and itinerary [15]). English preserves it in obiter dictum [19], literally a ‘statement in passing’. => itinerant
obituary (n.)
1706, "register of deaths," from Medieval Latin obituarius "a record of the death of a person," literally "pertaining to death," from Latin obitus "departure, a going to meet, encounter" (a euphemism for "death"), from stem of obire "go toward, go to meet" (as in mortem obire "meet death"), from ob "to, toward" (see ob-) + ire "to go" (see ion). Meaning "record or announcement of a death, especially in a newspaper, and including a brief biographical sketch" is from 1738. As an adjective from 1828. A similar euphemism is in Old English cognate forðfaran "to die," literally "to go forth;" utsið "death," literally "going out, departure."
