# Greek death prefix: necro or thanato? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005 "2011-01-26T02:15:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/1 "2011-01-26T02:15:06Z")
Why the two different words; do they have subtly different meanings? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/2 "2011-01-26T02:26:44Z")
_Necro-_ usually refers to things that are dead. _Thanato(s)_ is the event and personification of death. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/3 "2011-01-26T03:35:26Z")
Ah, I see the distinction. It makes a big difference since I was imagining a despotic tyrant (think Stalin only even worse) who maintains his power by killing huge numbers of people. He would boast by calling himself the Thanatarch rather than the Necrarch, the latter would imply that HE was dead. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/4 "2011-01-26T03:50:34Z")
Well, the necro-whatever might not be dead itself, but it would be defined in terms of a relationship with dead things: necromancer, necrophiliac. But _death itself_, that would definitely be Thanatos. Necrarch = Lord of the Dead. Thanatarch = Lord of Death. Presumably either one would be scary, but the latter seems more… active. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/5 "2011-01-26T03:58:13Z")
Your tyrant would be more likely called a thanatocrat. The -archy words generally refer to how many rulers there are - eg: none in an anarchy, one in a monarchy, two in a diarchy. The -cracy to whence the power originates - eg: from the people in a democracy, from religion in a theocracy, from wealth in a plutocracy. So, someone who gains power through killing would be a thanatocrat - one who rules through death. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/6 "2011-01-26T05:40:45Z")
“Um…wow. That’s really, really, something. What do you call your act?” “_The Thanatocrats!!!_” ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/7 "2011-01-26T06:03:13Z")
Or, use the full version of the suffix: Ne’crarchos, Thana’tarchos. The ’ shows intonation. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/8 "2011-01-26T06:08:21Z")
Mmm, I dunno, **Tengu**. I think you’re conflating structure with teleology. Democracy is not rule implemented by means of the people, nor theocracy rule implemented by means of a god. They are, at least in theory, rulerships _of_ those bases. Willful power–kratos–_resides_ there. A thanatocracy in this sense, is a government that _obeys_ a willful Death, or perhaps colloquially a culture pervaded by and subject before death. The government does not _employ_ death. Similarly, a necrocracy would be, in theory, the implemented will of the Dead. But none of that is what I meant to suggest would be implied by the titles Necrarch and Thanatarch. I see the Necrarch _commanding the dead_ (“Go forth! Seek brains!”), while the Thanatarch embodies or at least _wields death_ actively. By scythe or otherwise. The terms don’t justify their positions, the way “democracy” implies its own rightness–they just describe what they do. Anyway, I think Thanatarch sounds tuffer, which may be the overriding criterion. 😉 > [@Naxos](#): > > Or, use the full version of the suffix: Ne’crarchos, Thana’tarchos. The ’ shows intonation. Hey! I like that, more name-like. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/9 "2011-01-26T10:59:26Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > Or, use the full version of the suffix: Ne’crarchos, Thana’tarchos. The ’ shows intonation. Would the emphasis be NEcrarchos, thaNAtarchos, or would it be neCRARchos, tanaTARchos? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/10 "2011-01-26T13:27:16Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Democracy is not rule implemented by means of the people, nor theocracy rule implemented by means of a god. They are, at least in theory, rulerships _of_ those bases. Willful power–kratos–_resides_ there. A thanatocracy in this sense, is a government that _obeys_ a willful Death, or perhaps colloquially a culture pervaded by and subject before death. The government does not _employ_ death. Similarly, a necrocracy would be, in theory, the implemented will of the Dead. As I said, the -cracy words refer not to who rules, but from what source they _derive_ their power. (At least nominally so.) The power in a democracy derives from the people, but it lies in the leader they selected. The power in a theocracy derives from a/the god(s), but it lies in the leader who successfully claims to have been chosen by the god(s) in question. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/11 "2011-01-26T18:36:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Would the emphasis be NEcrarchos, thaNAtarchos, or would it be neCRARchos, tanaTARchos? NEchrarchos and ThaNAtarchos. Although the modern Greek version of the suffix would probably be more fitting: NeCHRArhis and ThanaTArchis. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greek-death-prefix-necro-or-thanato/569005/12 "2011-01-28T14:32:06Z")
[This article](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/americas/28chile.html?ref=world) in today’s NY Times about Chilean autopsies refers to the person who performs autopsies as a “thanatologist” (a word I’ve never heard before). > [@](#): > > The autopsy report concluded that Mr. Allende had died of a gunshot wound, fired from a short distance into his mouth, “that could have been made by himself.” > > But in 2008, Luis Ravanal, a thanatologist who analyzed the original report, said that he found evidence of gunshot wounds from two different weapons. dictionary.con defines it as: > [@](#): > > 1. > > the study of death and its surrounding circumstances, as in forensic medicine. > 2. > Psychiatry . the study of the effects of death and dying, esp. the investigation of ways to lessen the suffering and address the needs of the terminally ill and their survivors.