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Sarcophagus
Definitions
- 1 A stone coffin, often with its exterior inscribed, or decorated with sculpture.
"[T]his (venter impiorum inſaturabilis [the insatiable belly of the wicked]) in foure & tvventie houres conſumes many carkaſſes of Fiſhes and Fovvles, and generally tvvice a day all the fleſh therein interred; ſo true a Sarcophagus is the belly: […]"
- 2 a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions) wordnet
- 3 The cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine. broadly, informal
"'They move stuff out of the sarcophagus?' / 'I know, crazy people, they're killing themselves from radiation.' […] '[S]o the materials, plutonium, catalysis, are assembled at a site near the sarcophagus?' […] '[W]hat we know is this, they collect the plutonium, etc, from Chernobyl, what they don't have yet – is the know-how. To put the bomb together.'"
- 4 A type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1). broadly, historical
"There is an open sarcophagus-shaped wine-cooler beneath, standing on a plinth. The inside of the wine-cooler may either be lined with lead, or it may contain a block-tin case, with handles, to lift out. Ice is frequently put into these wine-coolers, in order to surround the decanters or bottles set in them, when the wine is to be cooled. Castors are sunk into the plinth of the sarcophagus, that it may be drawn out from beneath the sideboard, and pushed in again at pleasure. […] A sarcophagus with a hinged lid below, fixed on a hollow plinth with castors, is partitioned and lined with lead, so that ice can be put round each separate bottle."
- 5 A kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses. historical
"Near unto Aſſos, a citie in Troas, there is found in the quarries a certaine ſtone called Sarcophagus, vvhich runneth in a direct veine, and is apt to be cloven and ſo cut out of the rocke by flakes: The reaſon of the name is this, becauſe that vvithin the ſpace of fortie daies it is knovvne for certain to conſume the bodies of the dead vvhich are beſtovved therein, skin, fleſh, and bone, all ſave the teeth."
- 1 To enclose (a corpse, etc.) in a sarcophagus (noun sense 1). transitive
"All waiting: the new-coffined dead, / The handful of mere dust that lies / Sarcophagused in stone and lead / Under the weight of centuries: / Knight, cardinal, bishop, abbess mild, / With last week's buried year-old child."
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, 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 (sarkós) (the genitive form of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (-phágos, suffix meaning ‘eater (of); eating’) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon, “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.
The noun is borrowed from Latin sarcophagus (“grave; sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”), from Ancient Greek σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (sărkophắgos, “sarcophagus; flesh-eating, carnivorous”) (so named from λῐ́θος σᾰρκοφᾰ́γος (lĭ́thos sărkophắgos, 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 (sarkós) (the genitive form of σάρξ (sárx, “flesh; body”), from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -φάγος (-phágos, suffix meaning ‘eater (of); eating’) (from ἔφαγον (éphagon, “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.
See also for "sarcophagus"
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