anatomy

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /əˈnæt.ə.mi/, US /əˈnæt̬.ə.mi/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English anatomie, borrowed from Old French anatomie and directly Late Latin anatomia,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “dissection”), literally “a cutting up”,^[3][2][6] from ἀνατέμνω (anatémnō, “to cut up, dissect”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) and τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”) (see -tomy),^[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *tem- (“to cut”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew;^[2] the study of the structure of the human body, learned by dissection, in the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Anatomical structure is from about 1400.^[3] In Shakespeare's day the main senses were dissection (1540s), a mummy (1580s) and a skeleton (1590s),^[3][7] and the science of the structure of bodies became the chief sense from the 17th century.^[3] Trench notes that older writers used it for the thing dissected and then, once stripped of its flesh, for a skeleton.^[8] In that sense it was often cut to atomy, from a misdivision of an anatomy.^[3][9] A model of the body is from 1727–51,^[7] and anatomist from 1543.^[2] In dialects throughout Britain and Ireland an anatomy, natomy or atomy was a skeleton or an emaciated person.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – anatomy.^[2]
• c. 1400 – anatomical structure.^[3]
• 1541 – dissection.^[7]
• 1543 – anatomist.^[2]
• 1594 – a skeleton.^[7]
• 1727–51 – a model of the body.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The physical structure of an animal or plant, or of any of its parts.
2. The science of the structure of organisms.
3. A book or treatise on this science.
4. The dissection of an animal or plant.
5. A detailed analysis: the anatomy of a crime.
6. (informal) The human body.

Word family

• anatomically
• neuroanatomy
• anatomical
• anatomise
• anatomize
• anatomist
• anatomically correct

Related words

• atomy
• -tomy
• tome
• atom

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)