1. From Latin, columba, dove (pigeon); then it came to mean "a sepurchre for urns" and a "dovecote".
2. Also known as a columbary, a vault with nitches for urns containing ashes of the dead; a niche in such a vault.
3. A dovecote, or a pigeonhole in a dovecote (or dovecot), is a roost for domesticated pigeons.