CATACOMB, a grotto, or subterraneous place for the burial of the dead.
Some derive the word catacomb from the place where ships are laid up, which the modern Latins and Greeks call cumbar. Others say, that cata was used for ad, and catacumbas for adsumbas; accordingly, Dadin says, they anciently wrote catacumbas. Others fetch the word from the Greek καρα, and κωμ, a hollow, cavity, or the like.
Anciently the word catacomb was only understood of the tombs of St Peter and St Paul, and M. Chastelain
Catacombs. lain observes, that, among the more knowing of the people of Rome, the word catacomb is never applied to the subterraneous burying-places hereafter mentioned, but only to a chapel in St Sebastian, one of the seven stational churches; where the ancient Roman calendars say the body of St Peter was deposited, under the consulate of Tufus and Bassus, in 258.