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sar⋅coph⋅a⋅gus

[sahr-kof-uh-guh

–noun, plural -gi [-jahy]

, -gus⋅es.

1.	a stone coffin, esp. one bearing sculpture, inscriptions, etc., often displayed as a monument.

2.	Greek Antiquity. a kind of stone thought to consume the flesh of corpses, used for coffins.

Origin:
1595–1605; < L < Gk sarkophágos, n. use of the adj.; see sarcophagous

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sar·coph·a·gus (sär-kŏf'ə-gəs)

n. pl. sar·coph·a·gi (-jī') or sar·coph·a·gus·es
A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.

[Latin, from Greek sarkophagos, coffin, from (lithos) sarkophagos, limestone that consumed the flesh of corpses laid in it : sarx, sark-, flesh + -phagos, -phagous.]

Word History: Sarcophagus, our term for a stone coffin located above ground and often decorated, has a macabre origin befitting a macabre thing. The word comes to us from Latin and Greek, having been derived in Greek from sarx, "flesh," and phagein, "to eat." The Greek word sarkophagos meant "eating flesh," and in the phrase lithos ("stone") sarkophagos it denoted a limestone that was thought to decompose the flesh of corpses placed in it. Used by itself as a noun the Greek term came to mean "coffin." The term was carried over into Latin, where sarcophagus was used in the phrase lapis ("stone") sarcophagus, referring to the same stone as in Greek. Sarcophagus used as a noun in Latin meant "coffin of any material." This Latin word was borrowed into English, first being recorded in 1601 with reference to the flesh-consuming stone and then in 1705 with reference to a stone coffin.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Sarcophagus

Sar*coph"a*gus\, n.; pl. L. Sarcophagi, E. Sarcophaguses. [L., fr. Gr. sarkofa`gos, properly, eating flesh; sa`rx, sa`rkos, flesh + fagei^n to eat. Cf. Sarcasm.]

1. A species of limestone used among the Greeks for making coffins, which was so called because it consumed within a few weeks the flesh of bodies deposited in it. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, or Assian stone, and is said to have been found at Assos, a city of Lycia. --Holland.

2. A coffin or chest-shaped tomb of the kind of stone described above; hence, any stone coffin.

3. A stone shaped like a sarcophagus and placed by a grave as a memorial.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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sarcophagus

"stone coffin," 1601, from L. sarcophagus, from Gk. sarkophagos "limestone used for coffins," lit. "flesh-eating," in reference to the supposed action of this type of limestone (quarried near Assos in Troas) in quickly decomposing the body, from sarx (gen. sarkos) "flesh" (see sarcasm) + phagein "to eat" (see -phagous). The stone sense was the earliest in Eng,; meaning "stone coffin, often with inscriptions or decorative carvings" is recorded from 1705. The L. word, shortened in V.L. to *sarcus, is the source of Fr. cercueil, Ger. Sarg "coffin," Du. zerk "tombstone."

sarcophagus

stone coffin. The original term is of doubtful meaning; Pliny explains that the word denotes a coffin of limestone from the Troad (the region around Troy) which had the property of dissolving the body quickly (Greek sarx, "flesh"; phagein, "to eat"). This explanation is questionable; religious and folkloristic ideas may have been involved in calling a coffin a body eater. The word came into general use as the name for a large coffin in imperial Rome and is now used as an archaeological term

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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