Several prominent deaths have happened over the past few years, and a generational divide around the topic has started to emerge. It seems that older generations still hold to the custom of not speaking ill of the dead, while Millennials and younger generations have moved to a more honest eulogy of the deceased.

But where did the idea of not speaking ill of the dead come from, and why are people under 45 tossing it out the window? Like many things that get passed down through multiple generations, most people have no idea where this unspoken rule comes from. It turns out that the answer may go back further than you think.

The origin of ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’

English tutor and YouTuber Tutor Nick P revealed in a video that the phrase likely originated in 4 A.D. by Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. The term was officially recorded and attributed to Chilon in Book I, Chapter 70 of Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius.

According to Tutor Nick P, the saying was originally written in Ancient Greek as “τὸν τεθνηκóτα μὴ κακολογεῖν,” which........

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