anatomize

verb

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).

1. To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.

   “VVho but a Foppe vvil labour to anatomize a Flye?”

   “Then let them anotomize Regan, ſee vvhat breeds about her / Hart[,] is there any cauſe in nature that makes this hardnes, […]”

2. To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.

   “[…] 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 […]”

3. To cut up or dissect (a plant or one of its parts) to investigate its structure.
4. To scrutinize (something) down to the most minute detail.

   “Near-synonyms: atomize, analyze”

   “I ſpeake but brotherly of him, but ſhould I anathomize him to thee, as hee is, I muſt bluſh, and vveepe, and thou muſt look pale and vvonder.”

5. To chemically analyse (a substance).

   “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.”

   “Tell me, philosopher, thou who arrogatest to thyself the proud name, and who callest the cloud a vapour, and anatomizest the free and ambient air into thy wretched hydrogen and nitrogen,—tell me, dost thou know what it is to shed the tear of rapture, or indulge the sweet pain of romance?”

6. To cut up or dissect the body of a human being or an animal.

   “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.”

   “Impiety? Not if I know myself! / Not if you know the heart and soul, I bare, / I bid you cut, hack, slash, anatomize, / Till peccant part be found and flung away!”