anatomize
/əˈnætəmaɪz/ verb
Forms anatomizes anatomizing anatomized anatomizest anatomizedst anatomizeth anatomise
- verb To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.
- verb To punish (someone) by post mortem dissection following execution.
- verb To cut up or dissect (a plant or one of its parts) to investigate its structure.
- verb To scrutinize (something) down to the most minute detail.
- verb (obsolete) To chemically analyse (a substance).
- verb (intransitive) To cut up or dissect the body of a human being or an animal.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Late Middle English anatomisen, anatomien, anatomen (“to dissect in order to investigate”) borrowed from Middle French anatomiser (modern French anatomiser), or from its etymon Medieval Latin anatomizō, from Latin anatomia (“anatomy”) + -izō. Anatomia is derived from ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “act of cutting up, dissection”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); ἀνατομή (anatomḗ) is from ἀνᾰτέμνω (anătémnō, “to cut open”) (from ᾰ̓νᾰ- (ănă-, “up”) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut, hew; to butcher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- (“to cut”))) + -η (-ē, suffix forming action nouns). By surface analysis, anatomy + -ize (suffix forming (chiefly similative) verbs).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To dissect; to cut in pieces, as an animal vegetable body, for the purpose of displaying or examining the structure and use of the several parts.
- verb To discriminate minutely or carefully; to analyze.
Etymology [Cf. F. anatomiser.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “anatomize”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details