Necro-

Recently, I learned the English word “pernicious”, which means “extremely severe or life-threatening” or “having a very harmful effect”. This word contains the Latin intensifying prefix “per-“ and “necō” that means “I kill”.

The Latin “necō” leads us to a common English prefix “necro-“, which forms words relating to “death”, “dead bodies”, or “dead tissue”. Let’s take a look at a couple of words with “necro-“.

necrosis

“Necrosis” is the combination of “necro-“ and “-osis”, suffix that forms nouns of condition (mostly in medicine). It means “death of tissue or cells” (which corresponds to Japanese 壊死).

necrophilia

This word can be split into “necro-“ and the suffix “-philia” meaning “love of or liking for”¹. Therefore, necrophilia means “fascination with death”, especially “sexual attraction to, or intercourse with, dead bodies” (cf. pedophilia).