Cupella (2)
Cupella
in Christian archeology, is a small sepulchral recess for children, in the catacombs. At present, we have only one instance of its use, which is given by Marchi (Monumenti Primit. page 114). The inscription upon it records the burial of her two children, Secundina and Laurentius, by their mother Secunda. The solecisms in grammar and orthography of which it is full show that Secunda was a person of humble rank. The stone is preserved in the Museum Kircherianum.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Cupella (2)
is evidently the diminutive of cupa, explained to mean “urn,” “sepulchral chest.” This sense is a derivative one, from its classical meaning of a large cask, butt, or vat. It appears in pagan inscriptions but rarely. The use of the word survived until later times. The idea has been propounded that we may find in cupella, as a place of Christian burial, the etymology of the word capella, chapel, which has so long perplexed philologists, and of which no satisfactory derivation has ever yet been discovered. The architectural term cupola is another form of the same root.