post mortem

See also: postmortem, post-mortem, and post mórtem

English

Alternative forms

• postmortem, post-mortem

Etymology

From Latin post (“afterwards”) + mortem, from mors (“death”).

Adjective

post mortem (not comparable)

1. Having been inflicted or having occurred after death.

   We shouldn't let these post mortem injuries distract us while looking for the cause of death.

   The post mortem timeline is incomplete.

Synonyms

• posthumous

Antonyms

• antemortem
• anthumous
• predeath
• prehumous
• premortem

Coordinate terms

• perimortem

Adverb

post mortem (not comparable)

1. Occurring after death.

   The injuries were found to have been caused post mortem.

Synonyms

• posthumously

Antonyms

• antemortem
• anthumously
• prehumously
• premortem

Coordinate terms

• perimortem

Translations

occurring after death

• Armenian: հետմահու (hy) (hetmahu)
• Bulgarian: посмъртен (posmǎrten)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: kuolemanjälkeinen (fi)
• Greek: μετά θάνατον (el) (metá thánaton)

• Hindi: मरणोत्तर (marṇottar)
• Malay: pascanilai
• Persian: پس از مرگ‎ (pas az marg)
• Polish: pośmiertny (pl)
• Russian: после (ru) (posle) сме́рти (ru) f (smérti)

Noun

post mortem (plural post mortems)

1. An investigation of a corpse to determine the cause of death.

   Synonyms: autopsy, PM

2. (figuratively, management) Any investigation after the conclusion of an activity, particularly when said activity produces an unwanted outcome.

   Synonyms: debriefing, AAR

   • 2014 September 3, Thomas A. Limoncelli; Strata R. Chalup; Christina J. Hogan, The Practice of Cloud System Administration (Designing and Operating Large Distributed Systems; 2)‎^[1], Addison-Wesley, page 300:

     Each user-visible outage or SLA violation should be followed by a postmortem and conclude with implementation of the recommendations in the postmortem report.

   • 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 44:

     After a serious delay there is often a post mortem on what happened, but this is usually in-house.

3. (Britain, college slang, obsolete) At Cambridge, a second examination for those who were "plucked" or failed in the first.

Coordinate terms

• antemortem
• perimortem
• premortem

Translations

investigation of a corpse to determine the cause of death; an autopsy

• Armenian: դիահերձում (hy) (diaherjum)
• Bulgarian: аутопсия (bg) f (autopsija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 屍檢 (zh), 尸检 (zh) (shījiǎn), 驗屍 (zh), 验尸 (zh) (yànshī), 屍體解剖, 尸体解剖 (shītǐ jiěpōu)

• Finnish: ruumiinavaus (fi), kuolinsyyn selvitys
• Greek: νεκροψία (el) f (nekropsía), ιατροδικαστική έκθεση νεκροτομής (iatrodikastikí ékthesi nekrotomís)
• Italian: autopsia (it) f

• Japanese: 検視 (けんし, kenshi), 解剖 (ja) (かいぼう, kaibō)
• Persian: کالبدگشایی‎ (fa) (kâlbod-gošâyi)
• Russian: вскры́тие (ru) n (vskrýtije), аутопси́я (ru) f (autopsíja)
• Swedish: obduktion (sv) c

investigation after something considered unsuccessful

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: jälkiselvittely, jälkipuinti, jälkipyykki (fi)

• Japanese: 反省会 (hanseikai)
• Malay: pascanilai
• Persian: گذشته‌سنجی‎ (gozašte-sanji), پس‌کاوی‎ (pas-kâvi)

References

• (second examination): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

See also

• have the drains up
• post mortem auctoris

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Italian

Etymology

Latin

Adjective

post mortem (invariable)

1. post mortem