Noah Webster
Sarcophagus
SARCOPH'AGUS, noun [Latin from Gr. flesh and to eat.]
1. A species of stone used among the Greeks in their sculptures, which was so called because it consumed the flesh of bodies deposited in it within a few weeks. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, and said to be found at Assos, a city of Lycia Hence,
2. A stone coffin or grave in which the ancients deposited bodies which they chose not to burn.