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Anatomize

//əˈnætəmaɪz// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy. British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive

    "VVho but a Foppe vvil labour to anatomize a Flye?"

  2. 2
    analyze down to the smallest detail wordnet
  3. 3
    To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.; To punish (someone) by post mortem dissection following execution. British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive

    "[…] Surgeon's Hall, where malefactors were anatomised after execution—a Sanguinary but Salutary custom—was in the Old Bailey, over against the leads of the Sessions House […]"

  4. 4
    dissect in order to analyze wordnet
  5. 5
    To cut up or dissect (a plant or one of its parts) to investigate its structure. British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To scrutinize (something) down to the most minute detail. British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, figuratively, transitive

    "Near-synonyms: atomize, analyze"

  2. 7
    To chemically analyse (a substance). British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, figuratively, obsolete, transitive

    "Laſtly, it can not be othervviſe but that the fire, in all this vvhile of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiſeth, hath hardned and as it vvere roſted ſome partes into ſuch greatneſſe and dryneſſe as they vvill not fly, not can be carried vp vvith any moderate heate."

  3. 8
    To cut up or dissect the body of a human being or an animal. British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, intransitive

    "The most learned philosopher […] might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him."

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 anatomizāre, from Latin anatomia (“anatomy”) + -izāre (the present active infinitive of -izō (suffix forming similative verbs)), modelled after a supposed Ancient Greek *ἀνατομίζειν (*anatomízein). Anatomia is derived from Ancient Greek *ἀνατομία (*anatomía) (known only through a quotation in a Latin text), from ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “act of cutting up, dissection”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); ἀνατομή (anatomḗ) is from ἀνᾰτέμνω (anătémnō, “to cut open”) (from ᾰ̓νᾰ- (ănă-, prefix meaning ‘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).

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