Cadaver
/kəˈdæv.ər/noun
A dead body, especially one used for medical study.
Did you know?Latin cadaver was formed from cadere, ‘to fall,’ so the word frames death not as a mystery but as a downward motion — a body that has fallen away from life.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kad-
“to fall”
Latin
Latin
cadere
“to fall”
Late Latin
Latin
cadaver
“a fallen body; a corpse”
Old French
Old French
cadavre
“corpse”
Middle English
English
cadaver
“dead body, corpse”
Modern English
English
cadaver
“a dead body, especially for anatomical study”