sarcophagus

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>sarcophagus</strong> &#149; \sahr-KAH-fuh-gus\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> a stone coffin; <em>broadly</em> <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coffin">coffin</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>After archeologists unearthed the <em>sarcophagus</em>, they opened it up to discover, along with the king's body, almost a hundred gold coins.</p> <p>"Mummification took over two months, the body went in a wooden coffin, the coffin went into a <em>sarcophagus</em> decorated with carvings and paintings, which was placed in a tomb." — <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article247585710.html">Jeremy Hallock, <em>The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram</em>, 4 Dec. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Body-eating coffins might sound like something out of a horror film, but flesh-eating stone? The latter plays a role in the etymology of <em>sarcophagus</em>; it is the literal translation of <em>líthos sarkóphagos</em>, the Greek phrase that underlies the English term. The phrase traveled through Latin between Greek and English, taking on the form <em>lapis sarcophagus</em> before being shortened to <em>sarcophagus</em>. It's not clear whether the ancient Romans believed that a certain type of limestone from the region around Troy would dissolve flesh (and thus was desirable for making coffins). That assertion came from Roman scholar <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pliny">Pliny the Elder</a>, but he also reported such phenomena as dog-headed people and elephants who wrote Greek. Regardless, there is no doubt that the ancient Greek word for the limestone combined <em>sárx</em>, meaning "flesh," with a derivative of <em>phagein</em>, a verb meaning "to eat."