anatomy
nounAU, US, UK /əˈnætəmi/ · UK /əˈnatəmɪj/
Etymology From Middle English anatomie, from Old French anatomie, from Latin anatomia, from Ancient Greek ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “dissection”, literally “cutting up”), from ἀνα- (ana-, “up”) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut, incise”). By surface analysis, ana- + -tomy. Doublet of ottomy.
8 senses
- 1The science that deals with the form and structure of…
- 2The study of the parts of any organized body, to…
- 3The physical or functional organization of an organism…
- 4A treatise or book on anatomy.
- 5The form of an individual.
- 6The human body, especially in reference to the genitals.
- 7A skeleton or other dead body.
- 8The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual…
The science that deals with the form and structure of organic bodies; anatomical structure or organization.
- Animal anatomy is also called zootomy; vegetable anatomy, phytotomy; and human anatomy, anthropotomy.
- Let the muscles be well inserted and bound together, according to the knowledge of them which is given us by anatomy.1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
The study of the parts of any organized body, to discover their situation, structure, and economy.
The physical or functional organization of an organism, or part of it.
- I went to the Venice beach body-building competition and noticed the competitor from Athens, and let me tell you, that's what I call classic Greek anatomy.
- The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
A treatise or book on anatomy.
Colloquial The form of an individual.
Euphemistic The human body, especially in reference to the genitals.
- His extraordinary suggestion is that the future PM inserted a private part of his anatomy into the animal's mouth.2015 September 20, Michael Ashcroft, Isabel Oakeshott, “Drugs, debauchery and the making of an extraordinary Prime Minister: For years rumours have dogged him. Now, the truth about the shockingly decadent Oxford days of the gifted Bullingdon boy”, in Daily Mail:
- On the debate stage days later, Trump wanted all of America to know there was "no problem" with the size of his hands — or any other part of his anatomy.2016 December 28, Jessica Taylor, “11 Times Donald Trump Looked Like He Was Done For”, in NPR:
Archaic A skeleton or other dead body.
- So did the Ægyptians, who in the middest of their banquetings, and in the full of their greatest cheere, caused the anatomy of a dead man to be brought before them, as a memorandum and warning to their guests., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1 p.68
Broadly The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts.
- the anatomy of a discourse
- the anatomy of love
1 more example
- Burton's famous treatise, "The Anatomy of Melancholy"
- Derived terms
- anatomic, anatomical, anatomically correct, anatomiless, anatomise, anatomism, anatomist, anatomize, eigenanatomy, histoanatomy, morphoanatomy, myoanatomy, neuroanatomy, pathoanatomy, sonoanatomy, xenonatomy