Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Anatomy
The study of the structure of living things.
The Greek roots
ἀνά
aná
up, apart
τομή
tomḗ
a cutting
Literally: “a cutting up”
The story of the word
Knowledge won by 'cutting apart' — dissection. The root tomḗ also gives atom ('uncuttable') and appendectomy.
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
The course began with the anatomy of the hand.