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WHAT DOES THE ABBREVIATION RIP STAND FOR?
Everyone knows the expression RIP or RIP. The wish to rest in peace is used everywhere: it can be seen on tombstones, in obituaries, or in written mention of a recently deceased person. With the abbreviation RIP, Internet users comment on news about a celebrity who has left this world, regret a failed plan, or ridicule someone's ridiculous oversight. It has firmly entered the Russian slang: it was from RIP that the anglicisms “ripnutsya” or “ripnut” originated, which mean death or, in game slang, killing a character in an online game.
Many people know how RIP stands for, but few can explain where it came from. What lies behind this short abbreviation?
Origin of the abbreviation RIP
Contrary to popular belief, the abbreviation RIP does not come from the English idiom "rest in peace", but from the Latin "requiescat in pace", which literally translates into Russian as "May he rest in peace." Many religious scholars believe that this expression first appeared in an ancient Christian prayer, with which the deceased was escorted on his last journey:
“May her soul and the souls of all the faithful, by the grace of God, rest in peace ”
However, there is no consensus regarding its origin in the scientific community. According to another theory, "Requiescat in pace" goes back to the prayer that opens the Catholic funeral mass - the requiem:
“Give (him/her) eternal rest, O Lord, and let eternal light (him/her) shine. May he rest in peace. Amen" (translated from Latin: Réquiem ætérnam dona eis (ei) Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat eis (ei). Requiéscant (Requiéscat) in pace. Amen).
But in search of the roots of the abbreviation RIP, you can go even further. According to a theory popular among religious scholars, the text of this Catholic prayer is an interpretation of lines from the Third Book of Ezra (Ezra) - an apocryphal (Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism) / non-canonical (Orthodoxy) book of the Old Testament:
“<...> wait for your Shepherd, - He will give you eternal rest, for the One who will come at the end of the age is near... Be ready for the reward of the kingdom, for the flickering light will shine on you for eternity.”
What does "Requiescat in pace" mean?
But what is the meaning of these words in the Christian tradition? The Bible states that after death the soul returns to God and, depending on its actions on earth, resides either in paradise with angels and other righteous people, or in hell, where it is tormented by devils and demons. It can be assumed that the wish for peace in this way expresses the hope for a favorable outcome of God's judgment, but this explanation does not fit the prayer "Requiescat in pace", in which there is no mention of the soul.
The lines from the Third Book of Ezra, or rather, an indication of the Last Judgment coming at the end of time, can shed light on the true meaning of these words. According to Christian beliefs, after the Second Coming of Christ, the dead will rise, and the souls will unite with the bodies to appear before a god who will determine their final fate.
The history of RIP as an epitaph
The custom of seeing off the deceased with the wish of peace in the next world appeared in the early Christian era, but initially other words were used for this. The expression "Dormit in pace" (translated from Latin: "[he/she] sleeps in peace") is found on tombstones dating back to the 5th century AD. By this phrase, the early Christians of Rome, Greece, and Judea meant that the deceased died in peace with the Church, and therefore one with the host of all living and dead people who ever lived on earth in Christ. The epitaph "Requiescat in pace" began to appear on Christian graves only in the 8th century, but by the 18th century it had become ubiquitous on the tombstones of various Christian denominations.
However, Christians were by no means the first to use such a posthumous parting word. Similar words can also be found on Hebrew burials in the Beit Shearim necropolis in northern Israel, which are over 2,000 years old. Several of them bear the text, which in Russian can be roughly translated as "Come, find rest and find peace." According to popular legend, this wish was addressed to an unknown righteous man, whose heart could not stand the evil that filled the world. These words are still used today in some traditional Jewish ceremonies.
RIP in different languages
The ancient Latin expression has penetrated into almost all Indo-European languages, from the Romance group to the Slavic. In Russia, they usually say "rest in peace!", but if you want to show respect to a dead foreigner and pronounce these words in his native language, you can use the following equivalents:
- French: "Repose En Paix" ("REP");
- Spanish: "Descanse En Paz";
- German: "Ruhe in Frieden" ("RIF");
- Polish: "Spoczywaj w Pokoju".
