écorché

[ey-kawr-shey]

noun

1. an anatomical model of part or all of the human body with the skin removed, to allow study of the underlying musculature.

écorché

/ ˌeɪkɔːˈʃeɪ /

noun

1. an anatomical figure without the skin, so that the muscular structure is visible

Word History and Origins

Origin of écorché¹

First recorded in 1855–60; from French: literally, “skinned, flayed,” adjective use of past participle écorché, from the verb écorcher, from Old French escochier “to skin, peel,” from Vulgar Latin excorticāre, equivalent to ex- + cortic- (stem of cortex “bark, rind”) + -āre infinitive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of écorché¹

C19: French, literally: skinned

Example Sentences

One is an écorché, an exquisite frontal rendering of the horse in red chalk with its skin removed to display the underlying musculature.

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Ce présent consistoit en soixante-dix grands plateaux d'etain chargés de différentes sortes de confitures et de compotes, et vingt-huit autres dont chacun portoit un mouton écorché.

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"I thought that plaster of Paris figure was not the only ecorche in the room."

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Europe has now sunk netherward to its far-off position as in the Fore Scene, and it is beheld again as a prone and emaciated figure of which the Alps form the vertebrae, and the branching mountain- chains the ribs, the Spanish Peninsula shaping the head of the ecorche.

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A momentary devotion to him helped her, and lifting her eyes as bidden she regarded this human remnant, this écorché, a second time. 

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