Autopsying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of investigating a dead body can uncover reasons behind death
2. Examining a corpse can yield information about prior health issues and circumstances leading to death
3. Performing a detailed internal and external examination of a deceased person to find what caused death

Etymology: Autopsying is the present participle of "autopsy", so the story belongs to the noun. The noun comes from New Latin "autopsia", which was built from the Ancient Greek "autopsía", meaning "seeing with one's own eyes." The Greek combines "autos" (self) with a form of "opsis" (sight), the same root that gives English words like "optic" and "synopsis." The original sense was about first-hand observation, not the dissection of bodies. The medical sense arrived later. Physicians adopted the New Latin term for the examination of a body after death, which narrowed the Greek idea of seeing for yourself to the act of looking inside the dead. The grim sense now dominates, but the word's root still carries the notion of witnessing something directly.

Synonyms: performing an autopsy, postmortem examination, necropsy, dissection, forensic examination