Sarcophagus meaning
A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.
noun
Among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, a limestone coffin or tomb, often inscribed and elaborately ornamented.
noun
Any stone coffin, esp. one on display, as in a monumental tomb.
noun
Origin of sarcophagus
- Latin from Greek sarkophagos coffin from (lithos) sarkophagos limestone that consumed the flesh of corpses laid in it sarx sark- flesh -phagos -phagous
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From French sarcophage, from Latin sarcophagus, from Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophagos, “coffin of limestone", noun), so named from a supposed property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it, from σαρκοφάγος (sarkophagos, “flesh-eating, carnivorous"), from genitive σαρκός (sarkos) of σάρξ (sarks, “flesh, meat") + -φάγος (-phagos) (from ἔφαγον (ephagon), past of φαγεῖν (phagein, “to eat"))
From Wiktionary