I work in a research facility as a “mouse wrangler.” Recently, we had an alarming die-off of mice. My boss told me to prep a body to be sent to our vet for a necropsy. What is a necropsy and how does it differ from an autopsy?
I took Latin in High School (yeah, have a good laugh, but it does come in handy) and I know that “necro” is a verb that means “I kill”. I hope that this is a good clue.
Also, can a person have a necropsy instead of an autopsy?
Merriam Webster’s Medical Dictionary yields:
Main Entry: [sup]1[/sup]nec·rop·sy
Pronunciation: 'nek-"räp-sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -sies
: AUTOPSY
A more or less random search of Google shows that it’s mainly a matter of usage. The terms are used pretty much interchangeably on the serious medical and forensics websites, but in common parlance, “autopsy” means of a human being, while “necropsy” means of an animal.
I think it’s probably because the root word of “necropsy” is the same as in rather unpleasant words like “necromancer” and “necrophilia” and “necrotic”, which means “gangrene”. So people would rather say “autopsy” when they’re talking about Grandpa because it sounds “nicer”.
Minor nitpick: The Latin word neco, not necro, means “I kill”. The first element of Necropsy is derived from the related Greek word nekros, “corpse”.
Both words derive from Greek. “Necropsy” means a “view of the corpse,” i.e., the examination of a dead body. “Autopsy” means “An examination or view by (or of) one’s self.” Technically, what we refer to as “post-mortem” examinations should be termed “necroscopies.” But we call them “autopsies.” Whether the subject is a human or non-human cadaver, we still call these autopsies.