Necrophiliac

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Someone who is sexually drawn to dead bodies, a rare and disturbing paraphilia recognized as a serious psychological condition
2. A person with a sexual fixation on corpses, which is considered a deeply abnormal and criminal form of attraction in most societies
3. One who experiences sexual desire for dead human bodies, a condition classed as a severe paraphilic disorder by psychiatrists

Etymology: Greek "nekros" meant "corpse," and "-philia" meant "love" or "fondness for," so the word's two halves combine to describe an attraction to the dead. The pairing is a modern coinage built from these classical elements rather than a term the ancient Greeks used, and the "-iac" ending turns the noun into a description of the person who has this attraction. The first half, "necro-," comes from the Greek "nekros," which referred to a dead body. English has borrowed it into many scientific and medical terms, such as "necropolis" (a city of the dead) and "necromancy" (divination through the dead). The second half, "-philia," comes from "philos," meaning "loving" or "fond of," and it appears in words like "hemophilia" and "bibliophile" (though those are formed differently). Because the word is built entirely from Greek parts, it reads as a technical term. Its formation follows the pattern of other clinical and psychological labels, which is why it sounds more clinical than the everyday words it resembles.

Synonyms: necrophile