Lol just kept getting worse
On an animal it’s called a necropsy…
Actually, a long time ago, I was told it was supposed to be called necropsy also in humans. Necro = dead.
Autopsy would mean you’re doing the exam on yourself.
I don’t know why it stayed autopsy. Maybe it’s like “atom”, meaning “indivisible”.
That’s a nice interpretation!
So, I did a simple search (autopsy vs necropsy) and the first three links gave me three different answers! First said they’re synonyms. Second simple said autopsy is for humans and necropsy is for animals. Now, the third one gave your interpretation. Autopsy is for humans because it’s the same species.
Nice try, but the “auto” in autopsy refers to working on the body of the same species as oneself, when a human inspects a dead human.
EDIT: this is actually incorrect, etymologically it means witnessing something with the own eyes, from the Greek language, see answer below.
When working on a different species, like an animal, it’s called a necropsy.
If you are serious, it originally means “an eye-witnessing, a seeing for oneself”. Referring exclusively to dead bodies came later.
Damn you’re right, I stand corrected!
The explanation I gave came from my teacher at the university in my linguistics class, better double check everything I guess!
I remember one false etymology my historical linguistics teacher tought me at university and it was debunked on r*ddit so I totally feel you