From Middle English anatomie, from Old French anatomie, from Latin anatomia, from Ancient Greek *ἀνατομία, from ἀνατομή ("dissection"), from ἀνά ("up") + τέμνω ("to cut, incise").

• enPR: ənăt'-ə-m(ē), IPA: /əˈnæt.ə.mi/

anatomy

1. The art of studying the different parts of any organized body, to discover their situation, structure, and economy.

   Synonyms: dissection

2. The science that deals with the form and structure of organic bodies; anatomical structure or organization.

   Hyponyms: anthropotomy, phytotomy, zootomy

   Animal anatomy is also called zootomy; vegetable anatomy, phytotomy; and human anatomy, anthropotomy.

   • 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 ↗:

     Let the muscles be well inserted and bound together, according to the knowledge of them which is given us by anatomy.

3. (countable) A treatise or book on anatomy.
4. (by extension) The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts.

   Synonyms: analysis

   the anatomy of a discourse

   the anatomy of love

   Burton's famous treatise, "The Anatomy of Melancholy"

5. (colloquial) The form of an individual.

   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.

6. (euphemism) The human body, especially in reference to the private parts.
7. (archaic) A skeleton, or dead body.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1 p.68:

     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.

8. The physical or functional organization of an organism, or part of it.

• French: anatomie
• German: Anatomie
• Italian: anatomia
• Portuguese: anatomia
• Russian: анатомирова́ние
• Spanish: anatomía