anatomize
Meanings
- To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.
- To punish (someone) by post mortem dissection following execution.
- To cut up or dissect (a plant or one of its parts) to investigate its structure.
- To scrutinize (something) down to the most minute detail.
- To chemically analyse (a substance).
- To cut up or dissect the body of a human being or an animal.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Late Middle English anatomisen, anatomien, anatomen (“to dissect in order to investigate”) borrowed from Middle French anatomiser (modern French anatomiser), or from its etymon Medieval Latin anatomizāre, from Latin anatomia (“anatomy”) + -izāre (the present active infinitive of -izō (suffix forming similative verbs)), modelled after a supposed Ancient Greek *ἀνατομίζειν (*anatomízein). Anatomia is derived from Ancient Greek *ἀνατομία (*anatomía) (known only through a quotation in a Latin text), from ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “act of cutting up, dissection”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); ἀνατομή (anatomḗ) is from ἀνᾰτέμνω (anătémnō, “to cut open”) (from ᾰ̓νᾰ- (ănă-, prefix meaning ‘up’) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut, hew; to butcher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- (“to cut”))) + -η (-ē, suffix forming action nouns). By surface analysis, anatomy + -ize (suffix forming (chiefly similative) verbs).