October 6, 2025 • 11 mins
This is our first Halloween mini of 2025! RIP is a well-wishing, a command, and an indication of your relationship to person or idea being bid farewell. We break down the history, meaning, and language functions of using RIP. Requiescat in Pace!
Help us keep doing our thing! Patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast
Links and References:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
Support our podcast: www.patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast
Help us keep doing our thing! Patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast
Links and References:
- https://biblehub.com/q/what_does_'rest_in_peace'_(rip)_mean.htm#:~:text=Those%20contemplating%20life's%20meaning%20find,Conclusion
- https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/rest-in-peace/
- https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/does-rest-in-peace-rip-have-a-christian-origin.html
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
Support our podcast: www.patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to Why We Do what we do Mini. I'm
your host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are
a psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans
and non human animals do. We try and highlight the
weird things and the fun things, and the quirky things,
and even the popular things, and we just really try
and bring a skeptical, scientific length to them. But in October,
(00:41):
we put all of that on pause, not completely, but
like a little bit, and instead we started just taking
on some spooky topics because it's the month in which
Halloween takes place, and it's just a fun celebration of
all things macabre.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I guess, yeah, it's our favorite time of year. We
get to welcome in the fall season with Apple's doughnuts
and pumpkin spice and scary movies and pumpkins with faces
on them. It's a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's our favorite, yeah, And it's just things that we
find fun, and so we shift our gaze to those
type of topics. But this is a mini But minis
are not immune from the fact that they release in October.
These come out every Monday, and Mondays happen in October,
and so we will take the opportunity to also dedicate
our short dive episodes into a spooky related topic. Last
(01:32):
year was the first year we were doing minis during
the October month, and we did all of our minis
about some kind of diagnosis as it related to phobias,
which I thought was a clever idea, and it turns
out like there's so much overlap in those that it
started to become a little less unique pretty much immediately.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it was pretty much like the process and cause
were the same. It just was that, oh, yeah, this
person's very afraid of this thing.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, that was basically it. So I don't know that
we'll revisit that exact format again in the future, but
we're not going to do that this year. Instead, we're
taking on some other things that we find spooky related
to Halloween, and that can be done in fifteen minutes
or less. And that's a huge amount of preamble for
what we're talking about today, because this might be the
shortest mini we ever record.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, today we are talking about rip.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, let it rip. Before we dive into our topic,
I'll do a little bit more pre stuff here, which
is that if you would like to support us, you
can leave us a rating and review, like or subscribe,
Like and subscribe and tell a friend. You can also
join us on Patreon and I'll elaborate on those a
little bit at the end of this discussion. If you're
joining us for the first time, welcome, We hope what
(02:45):
you hear today. And if you're a returning person, then
welcome back. Thank you for continuing to seek us out
and listen to what we have to say about things.
We really appreciate all of our listeners no matter what.
But I think that's the stuff before we get started.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think it's going to cover it for now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
All right, Well, let's go ahead and dive in. Then,
We as a species have a history of wishing our
departed loved ones and friends a RESTful afterlife with the
helpful direction our IP, which of course stands for requia
scat in pace.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Sure, that's how I know it.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Or you might be more familiar with Yeah, that's how
you're probably familiar. You might be more familiar with rest
in peace. But I thought it'd be fun, since we
see our IP in so many different spaces, to dig
in a little bit to the history of this. Turns
out it's short and so perfect for a mini.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I love it. So the acronym RIP adorns many
a tombstone to leave the buried with the final edict
well wishing or prayer rest in peace. However, the practice
of funerary scripts are about as old as writing itself,
So we're going all the way back at this point.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, people have been as long as they've been writing,
they've been writing in some capacity about the departed people
in their lives. And that makes a lot of sense.
Like we are a social species. Writing relates to language,
page men. Language helps us have connection with one another.
The actual Latin translation traces back as far as sixteen
thirty one. The requiest scat in Pacy is how I
(04:11):
saw the pronunciation guide on that It was translated into
English in sixteen eighty one, so about fifty years later. However,
despite a strong connection to Catholicism, RIP was actually not
adopted ubiquitously on like tombstones and whatnot until the seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Sure, so, some have pointed to Biblical references as origins
for this idea. Isaiah fifty seven to two says, quote
he enters into peace, they rest in their beds, each
one who walked in his upright way end quote. In addition,
the concept of rest has profound significance in scripture as
as a reminder that human experience on earth is temporary
(04:49):
and continues after death. It alludes to God calling people
to rest with him after a lifetime of toil and.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Having to listen to ads. Oh all right, we're back.
We're talking about the history of our ip. This has
its origins in some Christian biblical traditions and stands for
rest in peace, and was started being more commonly used
(05:19):
in grain and tombstones in the seventeen hundreds. Now, the
phrase itself, it contains it has some like implicit information
and explicit information, and so we'll just unpack that really
quick first, is it. It contains an acknowledgment of passing
of somebody and that's the sort of rest part for
the rest and peace. And it also includes a well
(05:40):
wishing or a directive for afterlife to experience this without
worry or strife, and that's obviously the piece part of
the peacee. There is a lyric of a song that
by he his legend called or not the songs I
called this, but he just says rest in pieces, which
I thought was kind of fun, a fun way of
funny way I've played with it anyway, So that's part
(06:04):
of this rest and peace. It's acknowledgement of passing. It's
a well wishing for a afterlife without warring strife. And
there's like an implicit element of this that's recognition and
respect for the person and the celebration of their life
and kind of like a tacit condolence or wish of
condolences to the loved ones left behind by that person's passing.
(06:25):
So anytime we invoke this, there's kind of all of
these language social functions coming to play that are kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, And speaking of like social functions, RIP has been
secularized and use in a variety of ways in contemporary
pop culture. So it's actually pretty common to hear rest
and peace or RIP kind of at least in the
United States, as a common thing that you might say,
whether you're religious or not.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, And so the ways that this is engaged or
are going to have different language functions for people. So
saying RIP is actually alone little bit more withdrawn and
disengaged than necessarily saying rest and peace, but even anymore
RIP or rest in peace it almost seems to lack
imply a lack of closeness with a person who is deceased,
(07:12):
at least like really soon after they're passing, possibly due
to this sort of the generic lack of personalization, because
that's just sort of a generic thing to say. It's
also just as likely that it feels impersonal because of
the fact it's so commonly associated with death. Just in general,
it feels impersonal, and it's like sort of been appropriated
into Halloween type things. So there's sort of an almost,
(07:36):
i guess, watered down use of this phrasing as it exists,
because you imagine that like if their parent just passed,
they're not like, rip dad. You know, no one's saying that,
Like that feels too impersonal. They're unlikely to even say
rest and peace. They might like I would say that,
but I feel like the function of rip almost communicates
(07:58):
a distance between you and the dis east unless it
was after like a long period of time, Like perhaps
that's someone who's been gone for a long time, and
you might say rip, and it now sounds like it's
more out of respect because it's an acknowledgment after they've
been gone for quite a while. So you're not in
sort of a raw emotional state. Yeah, but then it
doesn't necessarily have that same function.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. Now, the hashtag, which is hashtag
rip is used in social media to note the passing
of someone, although again suggest lack of personal closeness or
rip even indicates a lot of homework, or even rip
me has been used to celebrate how good someone looks,
or you know, just kind of like there's lots of
different things that you could use it for. And you'll
(08:39):
see that that function kind of changes, especially in the
social media space.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, exactly, it's been its meaning you're starting to shift
more abruptly and more quickly. And of course it's been
as I mentioned, rip has been appropriated into Halloween with
these sort of foam tombstones or other decorations that sport
the iconic initialism of orip might be written on a
coffin or something of that nature, where these are all
(09:04):
just Halloween decorations that now contain this. Yeah, and don't
necessarily again it's it's depersonalized. It's sort of just repackaged
for a the whimsical, macabre celebration that is all things Halloween.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, Yeah, it's almost like a rote thing at this point.
Like it's not like it's like losing, it's like it's
distance from its meaning is like making it just kind
of a thing. Right, So, even further, RIP has been
abstracted in the use to represent simply the end of
something and metaphorical deaths, such as the canceling of a
TV show, the retirement of a band or other musical artists,
(09:39):
or the agonizing collapse of our country under dictatorial rule
of fe're Donald Trump? So rip us it's been real.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, RIP constitution, RIP protection for human beings. Yeah, just
in neoliberal hell moving forward.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
All right, that's what we have to say about RIP. Yeah,
that's where it comes from, why it exists, how it's
currently used, It's various linguistic functions. This was pretty quick,
so great. Anything else you have to say about that
before we wrap this one up?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Nothing on my end, I think that covers it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
All right, Well, I'll do a quick things to say
about supporting us. Then you can tell us your thoughts
on our IP or anything that we missed in the
history by emailing us directly info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com
or we're on the social media platforms and we do
look forward to hearing from you. You can leave us
a rating and a review, like subscribe and tell a friend,
(10:35):
and that really helps us get the word out. And
if you join us over on Patreon, you'll get ad
free content, behind the scenes content early episodes. You get
to join a group of very cool people, and I
will read the list of names of our patron supporters
on our full length episodes which come out on Wednesdays.
Thank you so much to my team of people without
whom I could not do this, and thank you all
for listening. Maybe asked, but is there anything to add
(10:57):
for you or we ready to say goodbyes?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Nope, nothing for me. That's it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Lrip to this episode. This is Abraham, this is Shane.
Why we Do what we Do? Mini is out Boy.
You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWDWWD podcast dot com.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome day.
Welcome to Why We Do what we do Mini. I'm
your host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are
a psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans
and non human animals do. We try and highlight the
weird things and the fun things, and the quirky things,
and even the popular things, and we just really try
and bring a skeptical, scientific length to them. But in October,
(00:41):
we put all of that on pause, not completely, but
like a little bit, and instead we started just taking
on some spooky topics because it's the month in which
Halloween takes place, and it's just a fun celebration of
all things macabre.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I guess, yeah, it's our favorite time of year. We
get to welcome in the fall season with Apple's doughnuts
and pumpkin spice and scary movies and pumpkins with faces
on them. It's a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's our favorite, yeah, And it's just things that we
find fun, and so we shift our gaze to those
type of topics. But this is a mini But minis
are not immune from the fact that they release in October.
These come out every Monday, and Mondays happen in October,
and so we will take the opportunity to also dedicate
our short dive episodes into a spooky related topic. Last
(01:32):
year was the first year we were doing minis during
the October month, and we did all of our minis
about some kind of diagnosis as it related to phobias,
which I thought was a clever idea, and it turns
out like there's so much overlap in those that it
started to become a little less unique pretty much immediately.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it was pretty much like the process and cause
were the same. It just was that, oh, yeah, this
person's very afraid of this thing.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, that was basically it. So I don't know that
we'll revisit that exact format again in the future, but
we're not going to do that this year. Instead, we're
taking on some other things that we find spooky related
to Halloween, and that can be done in fifteen minutes
or less. And that's a huge amount of preamble for
what we're talking about today, because this might be the
shortest mini we ever record.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, today we are talking about rip.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, let it rip. Before we dive into our topic,
I'll do a little bit more pre stuff here, which
is that if you would like to support us, you
can leave us a rating and review, like or subscribe,
Like and subscribe and tell a friend. You can also
join us on Patreon and I'll elaborate on those a
little bit at the end of this discussion. If you're
joining us for the first time, welcome, We hope what
(02:45):
you hear today. And if you're a returning person, then
welcome back. Thank you for continuing to seek us out
and listen to what we have to say about things.
We really appreciate all of our listeners no matter what.
But I think that's the stuff before we get started.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think it's going to cover it for now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
All right, Well, let's go ahead and dive in. Then,
We as a species have a history of wishing our
departed loved ones and friends a RESTful afterlife with the
helpful direction our IP, which of course stands for requia
scat in pace.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Sure, that's how I know it.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Or you might be more familiar with Yeah, that's how
you're probably familiar. You might be more familiar with rest
in peace. But I thought it'd be fun, since we
see our IP in so many different spaces, to dig
in a little bit to the history of this. Turns
out it's short and so perfect for a mini.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, I love it. So the acronym RIP adorns many
a tombstone to leave the buried with the final edict
well wishing or prayer rest in peace. However, the practice
of funerary scripts are about as old as writing itself,
So we're going all the way back at this point.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, people have been as long as they've been writing,
they've been writing in some capacity about the departed people
in their lives. And that makes a lot of sense.
Like we are a social species. Writing relates to language,
page men. Language helps us have connection with one another.
The actual Latin translation traces back as far as sixteen
thirty one. The requiest scat in Pacy is how I
(04:11):
saw the pronunciation guide on that It was translated into
English in sixteen eighty one, so about fifty years later. However,
despite a strong connection to Catholicism, RIP was actually not
adopted ubiquitously on like tombstones and whatnot until the seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Sure, so, some have pointed to Biblical references as origins
for this idea. Isaiah fifty seven to two says, quote
he enters into peace, they rest in their beds, each
one who walked in his upright way end quote. In addition,
the concept of rest has profound significance in scripture as
as a reminder that human experience on earth is temporary
(04:49):
and continues after death. It alludes to God calling people
to rest with him after a lifetime of toil and.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Having to listen to ads. Oh all right, we're back.
We're talking about the history of our ip. This has
its origins in some Christian biblical traditions and stands for
rest in peace, and was started being more commonly used
(05:19):
in grain and tombstones in the seventeen hundreds. Now, the
phrase itself, it contains it has some like implicit information
and explicit information, and so we'll just unpack that really
quick first, is it. It contains an acknowledgment of passing
of somebody and that's the sort of rest part for
the rest and peace. And it also includes a well
(05:40):
wishing or a directive for afterlife to experience this without
worry or strife, and that's obviously the piece part of
the peacee. There is a lyric of a song that
by he his legend called or not the songs I
called this, but he just says rest in pieces, which
I thought was kind of fun, a fun way of
funny way I've played with it anyway, So that's part
(06:04):
of this rest and peace. It's acknowledgement of passing. It's
a well wishing for a afterlife without warring strife. And
there's like an implicit element of this that's recognition and
respect for the person and the celebration of their life
and kind of like a tacit condolence or wish of
condolences to the loved ones left behind by that person's passing.
(06:25):
So anytime we invoke this, there's kind of all of
these language social functions coming to play that are kind
of interesting.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, And speaking of like social functions, RIP has been
secularized and use in a variety of ways in contemporary
pop culture. So it's actually pretty common to hear rest
and peace or RIP kind of at least in the
United States, as a common thing that you might say,
whether you're religious or not.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, And so the ways that this is engaged or
are going to have different language functions for people. So
saying RIP is actually alone little bit more withdrawn and
disengaged than necessarily saying rest and peace, but even anymore
RIP or rest in peace it almost seems to lack
imply a lack of closeness with a person who is deceased,
(07:12):
at least like really soon after they're passing, possibly due
to this sort of the generic lack of personalization, because
that's just sort of a generic thing to say. It's
also just as likely that it feels impersonal because of
the fact it's so commonly associated with death. Just in general,
it feels impersonal, and it's like sort of been appropriated
into Halloween type things. So there's sort of an almost,
(07:36):
i guess, watered down use of this phrasing as it exists,
because you imagine that like if their parent just passed,
they're not like, rip dad. You know, no one's saying that,
Like that feels too impersonal. They're unlikely to even say
rest and peace. They might like I would say that,
but I feel like the function of rip almost communicates
(07:58):
a distance between you and the dis east unless it
was after like a long period of time, Like perhaps
that's someone who's been gone for a long time, and
you might say rip, and it now sounds like it's
more out of respect because it's an acknowledgment after they've
been gone for quite a while. So you're not in
sort of a raw emotional state. Yeah, but then it
doesn't necessarily have that same function.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. Now, the hashtag, which is hashtag
rip is used in social media to note the passing
of someone, although again suggest lack of personal closeness or
rip even indicates a lot of homework, or even rip
me has been used to celebrate how good someone looks,
or you know, just kind of like there's lots of
different things that you could use it for. And you'll
(08:39):
see that that function kind of changes, especially in the
social media space.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, exactly, it's been its meaning you're starting to shift
more abruptly and more quickly. And of course it's been
as I mentioned, rip has been appropriated into Halloween with
these sort of foam tombstones or other decorations that sport
the iconic initialism of orip might be written on a
coffin or something of that nature, where these are all
(09:04):
just Halloween decorations that now contain this. Yeah, and don't
necessarily again it's it's depersonalized. It's sort of just repackaged
for a the whimsical, macabre celebration that is all things Halloween.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, Yeah, it's almost like a rote thing at this point.
Like it's not like it's like losing, it's like it's
distance from its meaning is like making it just kind
of a thing. Right, So, even further, RIP has been
abstracted in the use to represent simply the end of
something and metaphorical deaths, such as the canceling of a
TV show, the retirement of a band or other musical artists,
(09:39):
or the agonizing collapse of our country under dictatorial rule
of fe're Donald Trump? So rip us it's been real.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, RIP constitution, RIP protection for human beings. Yeah, just
in neoliberal hell moving forward.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
All right, that's what we have to say about RIP. Yeah,
that's where it comes from, why it exists, how it's
currently used, It's various linguistic functions. This was pretty quick,
so great. Anything else you have to say about that
before we wrap this one up?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Nothing on my end, I think that covers it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
All right, Well, I'll do a quick things to say
about supporting us. Then you can tell us your thoughts
on our IP or anything that we missed in the
history by emailing us directly info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com
or we're on the social media platforms and we do
look forward to hearing from you. You can leave us
a rating and a review, like subscribe and tell a friend,
(10:35):
and that really helps us get the word out. And
if you join us over on Patreon, you'll get ad
free content, behind the scenes content early episodes. You get
to join a group of very cool people, and I
will read the list of names of our patron supporters
on our full length episodes which come out on Wednesdays.
Thank you so much to my team of people without
whom I could not do this, and thank you all
for listening. Maybe asked, but is there anything to add
(10:57):
for you or we ready to say goodbyes?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Nope, nothing for me. That's it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Lrip to this episode. This is Abraham, this is Shane.
Why we Do what we Do? Mini is out Boy.
You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWDWWD podcast dot com.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome day.
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