Autopsies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A detailed examination of a body after death to determine causes or conditions that led to demise
2. An investigation into the nature of a person's death through internal and external analysis of the deceased
3. The practice of conducting post-mortem procedures to uncover medical insights and potential contributing factors in a fatality

Etymology: "Autopsies" is the plural of "autopsy," so the core story belongs to the singular. The word comes from New Latin "autopsia," which was built on Ancient Greek "autopsía," meaning "seeing with one's own eyes." The Greek combines "autós" (self) with "ópsis" (sight), so the original idea was direct, first-hand observation rather than anything to do with the dead. The shift to examining corpses happened later, once the word was adopted into scientific Latin and then into English. The sense of inspecting a body to determine the cause of death grew out of the older notion of seeing for oneself, since a physician who examined the body was personally witnessing what had happened. The word therefore moved from describing a general act of witnessing to naming a specific medical procedure.

Synonyms: postmortem, necropsy, dissection