What is a Sarcophagi?

As I was sitting on Venice Beach today enjoying the fun & sun with the other plebeians a seemingly random conversation arose between myself and Kiko – one of the locals. He inquired if I knew the root of the word “GOSSIP” perhaps this old English derivation could present an interesting topic for my blog (along with other morsels) he suggested. These little nuggets could entice any blog viewers wanting to know the latest random factoids. Great idea! “Lets think of other words that have interesting meaning or weird Latin root words”, I exclaimed. Then for no apparent reason I shouted out “Sarcophagi” and Kiko looked at me blankly, “What the hell does that mean?” I was surprised that this intelligent man did not know this…I was later informed that this is a word that most people educated or not, do not know. So just for posterity sarcophagi is a Latin/Greek derivative on flesh and eating. Today used to describe a coffin. The Latin word comes from the fact that limestone boxes housed dead bodies that were being laid to rest for all eternity. The acid in the limestone destroyed the flesh, so hence the word “flesh eating” or “sarcof – e –gy” gross, but sort of interesting, at least I thought so. For clarity “gossip” is from an old English saying. Men would go to their local pubs and “sip-beer” or “go-sip” hence GOSSIP…But here is the point, I think people in general are pretty smart, and that we all could do with a little more smarts. I am not exactly sure how to achieve this but reading is a good place to start…So for anyone who is interested I am going to produce a list of books that are standard to what used to be deemed “A body of knowledge” stuff that every curious, intelligent person had to be familiar with. Please feel free to add to this list as it is only my personal starting point. Or you could post on this blog your suggestions for summer reading under the post: