The Origins of 'RIP'

It's funny to me that R.I.P. remains a part of modern vernacular. I realized this over the last week when I was flooded with "R.I.P. Ted Kennedy"s on Facebook and Twitter.

"Rest in peace", or "R.I.P." as it's known to the lazy man, is a holdover from an era when people didn't understand death, and its associated...um...recycling processes. This is how the idea of vampires first came about.

Consider a hypothetical case where one's granny died after being unwell for some time. At the time of interment, she's looking particularly frail and gray. However, in those days, grave robbing was rampant, and in a day or two she might be dug up again to be relieved of her valuables. What the robbers, and subsequently her family later on, would also find is that she looks a bit ruddier--as if she's somehow un-dead.

Without question, the most logical course of action would be to assume that granny has become a bride of Lucifer and is rising from the dead at night, preying on local animals and citizens, feasting on their blood. This argument holds because she's looking redder. She might even be dripping a little blood from her mouth. She certainly will look like she's gained a little weight. And every society has an unexplained death or missing children to help back it up.

Makes sense, right? I'll go get the wooden stake. You go get a hammer.

What people didn't understand was that after granny's death, the bacteria come to life. They break down tissues. They make gas. Granny looks healthier because her vasculature is degenerating and what blood she has left is leaking out into the surrounding tissues. Or out of her mouth. Of course, she looks chubbier because those bacteria are having a heyday in her gut and making gas like no tomorrow. Granny's full, but not of human blood.

And so, just as "the graveyard shift" became a common idiom of mostly forgotten origin, so did the command, "rest in peace." Because, you know, if you tell the body not to get seduced by the devil and go gallivanting about as a vampire, it won't.