Mortem

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An examination performed after death to identify the cause is commonly associated with the investigative term linked to posthumous inquiries
2. This term denotes an analysis that occurs following demise in order to reveal circumstances surrounding death
3. An evaluation conducted after a person's death aims to ascertain the cause and circumstances leading to their passing

Etymology: The word is a fragment. "Mortem" is the Latin accusative of "mors," meaning "death," and it survives in English almost only inside the phrase "post mortem," literally "after death." Latin "mors" traces back to a root meaning "to die," which also gave English "mortal" and "mortality." "Post mortem" came into English as a borrowed Latin phrase, used as an adjective and adverb before it became a noun. Its earliest sense was not medical at all: it could describe something done after a person had died, such as a will or a tribute. The meaning narrowed over time to the examination of a body, which is why the word now often appears alone as shorthand for "post-mortem examination." Because the phrase is Latin in form, English writers have long treated "mortem" as a loanword rather than a native English word, and it is rarely used outside this fixed expression.

Synonyms: postmortem, autopsy, analysis, review