sarcophagus

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“
In these chambers in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture, jewelry, weapons Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose scale than that of the pharaoh.

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Definitions (7)

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  1. noun A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.
  2. 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.

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Examples (50)

  • The remains repose in their original sarcophagus, which is bound by broad girders of steel. —  The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi
  • "Prince Khaemwaset had a daughter named Isisnofret (and) because of the proximity of the newly discovered tomb to that of the prince, it is possible that the owner of the sarcophagus is the daughter of Khaemwaset," he said. —  Yahoo! News: Top Stories
  • The council says the sarcophagus was found in pieces along the south wall of the tomb, which dates back to the 19th Dynasty. —  Kentucky.com: Homepage
  • As for the sarcophagus, Yoshimura explained that this was partially broken but its shape was identifiable. —  Al-Ahram Weekly Online
  • Urgent measures for radiation and worker safety as well as structural stabilization measures to the "sarcophagus" erected by the Soviet Union are largely complete, and the contract for construction of the new shelter to be built around the sarcophagus was awarded in September 2007.
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

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

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also sarcophage, from French sarcophage = Spanish sarcófago = Portuguese sarcophago = Italian sarcofago = Dutch sarcophaag = German sarcophag = Danish Swedish sarkofag, a coffin, sarcophagus; from Latin sarcophagus, adjective, sc. lapis, a kind of limestone, as a noun a coffin, sepulcher, from Greek σαρκοφάγος, adjective, flesh-eating, carnivorous (σαρκοφάγος λίθος, a limestone so called, literally ‘flesh-consuming stone,’ so named from a supposed property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it); hence, as a noun, a coffin of such stone: see sarcophagous.
 

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/sɑrˈkɑfəgəs/
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