Autopsy

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɔːtɒpsiː/

Definitions

1. A thorough investigation of a dead body is carried out to discover the underlying reasons for death
2. An in-depth evaluation of a deceased person is done to establish the cause of death as well as to identify any pre-existing conditions or trauma
3. An examination conducted on a dead body to identify how death occurred

Etymology: The Greek word "autopsia" literally meant "seeing with one's own eyes," built from "autos" (self) and "opsis" (sight), the same root that gives English "optic" and "optical." Its sense was personal witness: a person who saw something for themselves rather than hearing it secondhand. The modern medical sense came much later. Scholars drew on the Greek term in New Latin to name the examination of a body after death, so the word moved from the act of witnessing to the act of looking inside a corpse to learn what killed the person. The idea, then, is that the examiner's own eyes, rather than reports or rumour, settle the question of cause.

Synonyms: postmortem, dissection, examination, necropsy, analysis

Antonyms: presumption, conjecture, theory, hypothesis, guesswork