▪ I. cist
(sɪst, kɪst)
Erron. cyst. Cf. kist n.1 4 b.
[ad. L. cist-a, a. Gr. κίστη box, chest. See chest, kist. But in sense 1, app. taken immed. from Welsh cist in cist faen stone coffin: see kistvaen.]
1. a. Preh. Archæol. A sepulchral chest or chamber excavated in rock or formed of stones or hollowed tree-trunks; esp. a stone-coffin formed of slabs placed on edge, and covered on the top by one or more horizontal slabs.
| 1804 Archæol. (1806) XV. 340 These oval pits, or cists..about four feet long..were neatly cut into the chalk, and were, with the skeletons, covered with the pyramid of flints and stones. 1848 Lytton Harold ii. ii, In various cysts and crypts. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. iii. 80 A small chamber or cist of undressed stones. 1861 Sat. Rev. 7 Sept. 253 A cist was found, not at the base, but nearly at the top of the tumulus. |
b. transf.
| a 1832 Crabbe Posth. Tales x, The healing spring That soon its rocky cist forsakes. |
2. Gr. Antiq. A small receptacle for sacred utensils carried in procession at the celebration of mystic festivals.
| 1847 Craig Dict., Cist, Cyst..was originally of wicker⁓work; and when afterwards made of metal, the form and texture were preserved, in imitation of the original material. [1850 J. Leitch Müller's Anc. Art 437 Demeter has..the unveiled cista in her left, a pig in her right hand.] |
3. attrib. as cist-urn.
| 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ii. v. 418 Large cist urns are invariably found inverted with the burned bones gathered into a heap below them. |
▪ II. cist
obs. f. cyst bladder, confused with prec.