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 cumbe. Others say, that cata was used for ad, and catacomb for adumbas: accordingly, Dadin says, they
anciently wrote cataumbas. Others fetch the word Catacomb from the Greek κατα, 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 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 festional churches; where the ancient Roman calendars say the body of St Peter was deposited, under the consulate of Tufcus and Bassus, in 258.