cadaver

Recorded since c.1500, borrowed from Latin cadāver.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈdæv.ə(ɹ)/, /kəˈdɑːv.ə(ɹ)/, /kəˈdeɪ.və(ɹ)/[1][2]
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˈdævɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧dav‧er

cadaver (plural cadavers)

1. A dead body; especially the corpse of a human to be dissected.

• See also Thesaurus:corpse, Thesaurus:body
• body
• corpse

• cadaveric
• cadaverine
• cadaverous
• cadaverize
• cadaverously
• cadaverousness
• cadaver dog

• cadence

From the Latin verb cadō (“I fall”), as a euphemism for dying, "the fallen one". This etymology is found as early as ca. 200 CE in the writings of Tertullian, who associated cadaver to cadendo : Atque adeo caro est quae morte subruitur, ut exinde a cadendo cadaver enuntietur. (Tertullian, De Resurrectione Carnis).

A folk etymology derives cadaver syllabically from the Latin expression caro data vermibus (flesh given to worms). This etymology, more popular in Romance countries, can be traced back as early as the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kaˈdaː.wer/, [kaˈdaː.wɛr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈda.ver/, [kaˈdaː.ver]

cadāver n (genitive cadāveris); third declension

1. A corpse, cadaver, carcass

Third declension neuter.

• cadāverōsus (seemingly dead)

• cadaver in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cadaver in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cadaver in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• cadaver in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cadaver in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Tertullian. On the Resurrection of the Flesh. Chapter 18.
  Quote: “So that it is the flesh which falls by death; and accordingly it derives its name, cadaver, from cadendo.”