Etymology

necrophilia

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Today it means: A pathological attraction to dead bodies. Full definition →

Ancient Greek νεκρός ← German Nekrophilie
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The story

  1. German · derived fromNekrophilie
  2. Ancient Greek · derived fromνεκρός“corpse, dead”
  3. English todaynecrophilia

From necro- (Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós, “corpse, dead”)) + -philia (Ancient Greek φιλία (philía, “affection”)), after German Nekrophilie (in Krafft-Ebing 1887).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekνεκρός all →

necropolisnecro-necronym

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.