Other forms: sarcophagi
A sarcophagus is a stone coffin, often carved. A carved sarcophagus, open the sarcophagus, a marble sarcophagus.
The Greek name means flesh-eating, from a belief that a particular limestone consumed the body inside it. Egyptian ones held nested coffins within, and Roman ones were carved on the sides because they stood in the open rather than being buried.
1nounsarcophagusA stone coffin, often carved.
“Inside the tomb, the archaeologists found a carved stone sarcophagus holding the king's mummy.”
sarcophagus is a coffin.
Greek sarkophagos means flesh-eating — sarx, flesh, plus phagein, to eat — from a stone said to consume bodies.
Proto-Indo-European
*twerḱ- — to carve; to cut off, trim
Ancient Greek
σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος — sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous
Latin
sarcophagus — grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous
English, today
sarcophagus
Built from
The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (“sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος literally “flesh-eating stone” a type of limestone found at Assos in Troas (now Behramkale, Turkey) thought to consume the flesh of corpses, and thus used to make coffins), from σαρκός (the genitive form of σάρξ (“flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (from ἔφαγον (“to devour, eat”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰeh₂g- (“to allot, distribute; to divide”)). The plural form sarcophagi is borrowed from Latin sarcophagī. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA