sarcophagus

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Noun 1.2.1 Translations 1.2.2 External links

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

< French sarcophage < Latin sarcophagus < Greek σαρκοφάγος (“‘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’”) < Ancient Greek σάρξ (“‘flesh, meat; genit. σαρκός’”) + -φάγος (< ἔφαγον: past of φαγεῖν (“‘to eat’”))

[edit] Noun

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.

[edit] Translations

[edit] External links

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