vivisection

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   surgical cutting into, or other invasive experimentation on, a living animal or organism for scientific research

   The debate asked whether knowledge gained through vivisection could justify the suffering involved.

Built from Latin vīvus ("alive") + sectiō ("a cutting"), the latter from secāre ("to cut"); compare French vivisection. Its elements therefore mean literally "cutting of the living." The verb vivisect was later back-formed from the noun.

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