resurrection man

See also: resurrection-man

English

Alternative forms

• resurrection-man

Etymology

resurrection (“the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again”) + man

Noun

resurrection man (plural resurrection men)

1. (euphemistic, historical) A man who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves; a graverobber.
   • 1781, “R. King”, in Compl. Mod. London Spy, section 106:

     Persons (under the name of resurrection-men) continue their business, getting from 1 guinea to 5 or 6, according to the value set upon the corpse they take up.

   • 1910, Encyclopædia Britannica, I. 937/2:

     Earlier exhumations seem to have caused very little popular concern;... but later... the trade of ‘resurrection man’ became commoner, and attracted the lowest dregs of the vicious classes.

Synonyms

• resurrectioner
• resurrectionist
• bodysnatcher, body snatcher