Anciently, a chrisom, or "chrisom-cloth," was the face-cloth, or piece of linen laid over a child's head when they were
baptised or christened. Originally, the purpose of the chrisom-cloth was to keep the ''
chrism'', a consecrated oil, from accidentally rubbing off.
With time, the word's meaning changed, to that of a white mantle thrown over the whole infant at the time of baptism. The term has come to refer to a child who died within a month after its baptism—so called for the chrisom cloth that was used as a
shroud for it. Additionally, in London's Bills of Mortality, the term chrisom was used to refer to infants who died within a month after being born.
References
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* ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913)
Baptism
Death customs
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