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“sarcophagus”
sarcophagus (s), sarcophagi (pl)
1. Literally, eating or consuming flesh; flesh-eating.
2. From Greek, sarkophagos, through Latin, sarcophagus; so named because the limestone, in which people were buried, caused rapid disintegration or decomposition of the bodies.
3. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was a limestone coffin or tomb, often inscribed and ornamented.
4. Now, by extension, the term is used for any stone coffin, especially a large or monumental tomb.
This is just one of many saprcophagi existing from times past.
2. From Greek, sarkophagos, through Latin, sarcophagus; so named because the limestone, in which people were buried, caused rapid disintegration or decomposition of the bodies.
3. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was a limestone coffin or tomb, often inscribed and ornamented.
4. Now, by extension, the term is used for any stone coffin, especially a large or monumental tomb.
The ancient Greeks used, for the making of coffins, a limestone which disintegrated the flesh of bodies deposited in it within a few weeks.
Such a coffin was called sarkophagos, literally, "eating flesh," a word formed from sarx, "flesh," and phagein, "to eat." From this origin comes our word sarcophagus, which has lost its literal significance and denotes merely any stone coffin or large coffin placed where it may be seen.
This entry is located in the following units:
phago-, phag-, -phage, -phagi, -phagic, -phagically, -phagia, -phagism, -phagist, -phagic, -phagous, -phagy
(page 16)
sarco-, sarc-, -sarcous, -sarc, -sarcoma, -sarcomatous, -sarcomatoid
(page 5)
(word origin and the historical development of sarcophagus and related sarcasm, sarcastic)