- 1
A sarcophagus is a stone box for a dead body, used in the ancient world. It is often and — with faces, stories, or patterns — and built to last in a tomb, not to look like a simple wooden coffin at a funeral today.
A sarcophagus石棺 is是 used in the ancient world古代使用的 a stone box for a dead body裝屍體的石箱. It它 is often carved and decorated常常被雕刻裝飾 with faces, stories, or patterns刻上人臉、故事或花紋 and built to last in a tomb打造成能在墓室裡長久留存 not to look like a simple wooden coffin at a funeral today而不是要像現代喪禮上普通的木棺材。
You see them in museums, still heavy, still closed or half open.
in museums在博物館裡 you see them你會看到它們 still heavy依然沉重 still closed or half open依然關著或半開著。
The Greeks named a kind of limestone 'flesh-eating stone' because people believed it ate the flesh of the corpse, so they made these boxes from it; the name stuck even when the box was marble or another stone and nobody thought the rock was literally eating anyone.
The Greeks希臘人 named a kind of limestone把一種石灰岩取名為 'flesh-eating stone'「食肉石」 because people believed it ate the flesh of the corpse因為人們相信它會吃掉屍體的肉 so they made these boxes from it所以就用它來做這些箱子 even when the box was marble or another stone即使箱子其實是大理石或其他石頭 and nobody thought the rock was literally eating anyone也沒有人真的以為石頭在吃人 the name stuck這個名字還是留了下來。
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and others all used stone burial boxes, and English borrowed this rather grand word for them. Though actually, a coffin in ordinary modern English is usually wood, and we bury or burn it; a sarcophagus is the old, , stone kind, more a monument than a disposable box.
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and others埃及人、希臘人、羅馬人和其他民族 all used stone burial boxes都用過石造的葬具箱 and English borrowed this rather grand word for them英文就借用了這個相當氣派的字來稱呼它們。Though actually不過其實 a coffin in ordinary modern English現代一般英文裡的棺材 is usually wood通常是木頭做的 and we bury or burn it我們會把它埋掉或燒掉 a sarcophagus而石棺 is the old, showy, stone kind則是那種古老氣派的石造款 more a monument than a disposable box比較像紀念碑而不是用完即丟的箱子。
The plural is often sarcophagi in careful writing, though sarcophaguses also appears.
The plural複數形 in careful writing在講究的寫作裡 is often sarcophagi常用 sarcophagi though sarcophaguses also appears不過也會看到 sarcophaguses。
組成Borrowed from Latin sarcophagus, from Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos), 'flesh-eating'. Greeks used λίθος σαρκοφάγος, 'flesh-eating stone', for a limestone from Assos (in what is now Turkey) thought to consume the flesh of the dead, and so used for coffins. The pieces are σάρξ / σαρκός 'flesh' + -φάγος 'eater'.
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
sarcophagusnoun/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/
- 1
A stonen 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: […]
- One meets vvith many other Figures of Meleager in the ancient Baſſo Relievo's, and on the Sides of the Sarcophagi, or Funeral Monuments.
- 2
informalThe cement and steel structure that encases the destroyed nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
- '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.'
- 3
historicalA type of wine cooler (“a piece of equipment used to keep wine chilled”) shaped like a sarcophagus (sense 1).
- 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.
- A George VI mahogany sarcophagus wine cooler, with nulled mouldings and brass ring handles, the turned stem on leaf carved and moulded legs and brass castors.
- 4
historicalA kind of limestone used by the Ancient Greeks for coffins, so called because it was thought to consume the flesh of corpses.
- 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.
- His Entrails are like the Sarcophagus, that devours dead Bodies in a ſmall Space, […]
sarcophagusverb/sɑːˈkɒfəɡəs/
- 1
To enclose (a corpse, etc.) in a sarcophagus (noun sense 1).
- 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.
- Was it the Mummy of King Cheops—still sarcophagused in the labyrinthine recesses of the star-y-pointing Pyramid, to mock generations of Egyptologists, past, present, and to come—that had all at once found a tongue within his desiccated jaws?
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。