Metropol

why are so many news organisations insisting on referring to his body as 'remains'?

this article is an example i pulled out of google - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/musi ... ublin.html there are many others.

i was always under the impression that the distinction between a 'body' and 'remains' was whether it had decomposed? even the day after gately died there was speculation about what would happen his 'remains'.

this seemed odd. i don't recall michael jackson's body being referred to as 'remains' and he was unburied for some time. anybody else notice this?

Arcane term - remains: That which is left of a human being after the life is gone; relics; a dead body.

More sympathic in my opinion. Life has gone therefore all that remains in the body.

It's more of a Catholic thing, the use of the word "remains" is correct in this instance.

The bodies of the deceased are referred to as "remains" as their souls are regarded as ascended to heaven upon their death, and the "remains" remain "remains" for usually three days - longer in Stephen's case due to a post mortem, bringing his remains back to Ireland and for his family to hold a wake - until the body is buried/cremated.