noun, masculine/ka.ta.falk/plural: catafalques
catafalco, catafalque
“J’avais vu la Place Rouge, quelques jours auparavant, lors des funérailles de Gorki. J’avais vu ce même peuple [...] défiler longuement, interminablement, dans la grande Salle des Colonnes, devant le catafalque.” — I had seen Red Square, several days before, during Gorky's funeral. I had seen this same people […] file for a long time, interminably, past the catafalque in the great Hall of Columns.
Related: catafalqueux, catafaltique
Borrowed from Italian catafalco, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum, from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down”) + Latin fala (“scaffolding, wooden siege tower”), which is from Etruscan. Doublet of échafaud.