sarcophagus

From French sarcophage, from Latin sarcophagus, from Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos, “coffin of limestone”, noun), so named from a supposed property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it, from σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos, “flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from genitive σαρκός (sarkós) of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh, meat”) + -φάγος (-phágos) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon), past of φάγω (phágō, “eat”))

• IPA^(key): /sɑː(ɹ)ˈkɒfəɡəs/

sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses)

1. A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.
2. (informal) The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed reactor at the power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
3. (historical) A kind of limestone used by the Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.
4. (historical) An 18th-century form of wine cooler.

• sarcophagy
• autosarcophagy

• sarcophagus in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sarcophagus in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• sarcophagus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos, “coffin of limestone”), σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos, “flesh-eating, carnivorous”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /sarˈko.pʰa.ɡus/, [sarˈkɔ.pʰa.ɡʊs]

sarcophagus f (genitive sarcophagī); second declension

1. a grave, sepulchre

Second declension.

• English: sarcophagus
• French: cercueil (inherited), sarcophage (borrowed)

sarcophagus (feminine sarcophaga, neuter sarcophagum); first/second declension

1. flesh-devouring, carnivorous
2. a kind of limestone used for coffins

First/second declension.

• sarcophagus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sarcophagus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sarcophagus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• sarcophagus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette