Excarnating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of dissecting or stripping away flesh from an organism or object for various analyses or research methods
2. The procedure of extracting soft tissue from a biological entity for examination or preservation practices
3. The process of carefully removing flesh from a corpse or sample for study or other purposes

Etymology: "Excarnate" is a verb formed from Latin "excarnare," built from the prefix "ex-" meaning "out of" or "away" and "carnis," the genitive of "caro," meaning "flesh." The word thus describes, quite literally, stripping away the flesh. Its present participle and gerund form "excarnating" carries the same sense as the base verb, so the process it names is the removal of soft tissue from a body or specimen. The Latin root "caro" is also the source of familiar English words such as "carnivore," "carnal" and "incarnate," which share the sense of flesh. "Incarnate," meaning to embody in flesh, is the mirror image of "excarnate": where one puts flesh on an idea or being, the other takes it off.