释义 |
autopsy /ˈɔːtɒpsi / /ɔːˈtɒpsi /noun (plural autopsies)A post-mortem examination to discover the cause of death or the extent of disease: a Home Office pathologist carried out the autopsy [mass noun]: on autopsy it was established that he had suffered from a rare brain condition...- Medical examiners frequently perform autopsies if a death is deemed suspicious or unexplained.
- Medical Examiners are pathologists who have special training in death investigation and legal autopsies.
- There are two basic kinds of autopsy: the forensic autopsy and the medical autopsy.
Synonyms post-mortem, PM, necropsy verb (autopsies, autopsying, autopsied) [with object]Perform an autopsy on (a body or organ): the animal must be autopsied as soon as possible (as adjective autopsied) an autopsied brain...- These bodies were autopsied secretly.
- When his body was autopsied he had several broken bones and possible internal injuries.
- The central idea of his work came to him as he autopsied the body of a notorious Italian criminal.
OriginMid 17th century (in the sense 'personal observation'): from French autopsie or modern Latin autopsia, from Greek, from autoptēs 'eyewitness', from autos 'self' + optos 'seen'. In an autopsy someone seeks to find out how a person died by seeing the body with their own eyes. An early sense of the word was ‘personal observation’, and this is the key to the word's origin. It comes from Greek autoptēs ‘eyewitness’, based on autos ‘self’ and optos ‘seen’, which means that it is related to other English words such as optic (Late Middle English) and optician (late 17th century).
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