GC: n
S: NCBI – https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5769822/ (last access: 17 January 2025); SDir – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982218310005 (last access: 17 January 2025).
N: 1. thanatosis (noun). From thanat(o)- (before vowels thanat-, word-forming element of Greek origin used in English from 19c., mostly in scientific words, and meaning “death;” from Greek thanatos “death,” from PIE *dhwene- “to disappear, die,” perhaps from a root meaning “dark, cloudy” -compare Sanskrit dhvantah “dark”-. Hence Bryant’s “Thanatopsis“, with Greek opsis “a sight, view”)+ -(o)sis (word-forming element expressing state or condition, in medical terminology denoting “a state of disease,” from Latin –osis and directly from Greek –osis, formed from the aorist of verbs ending in –o. It corresponds to Latin –atio).
thanatoid (adjective). “resembling death; apparently dead,” 1857; see thanato- “death” + -oid “resembling.”
2. A state that in some respects resembles shock, is characterized by cessation of all voluntary activity and usually by assumption of a posture suggestive of death, and occurs in various insects (as beetles) when disturbed. It can also happen in mammals like the opossum.
3. The earliest known use of the noun thanatosis is in the 1860s. OED’s earliest evidence for thanatosis is from 1860, in the writing of Robert Mayne.
4. Thanatosis, also known as death-feigning is the ability of an animal to fake death in order to evade a predator or any other unwelcome intrusion. Tonic Immobility (TI) is the unlearned adoption of a motionless posture by a prey individual triggered by physical contact or very close proximity of a predator.
5. Animal Behaviour; Insects, Centipedes, Spiders, and Scorpions : thanatosis.
- A state that in some respects resembles shocks, is characterized by cessation of all voluntary activity and usually by assumption of a posture suggesting death, and occurs in various insects (as beetles) when disturbed.
6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the short movie Thanatosis (2012) by Alexander Peskador, and the book Avoiding Attack: The Evolutionary Ecology of Crypsis, Aposematism, and Mimicry (2018) [Chapter 13 Thanatosis] by Graeme D. RuxtonWilliam L. AllenThomas N. SherrattMichael P. Speed.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/word/thanato-, https://www.etymonline.com/word/-osis#etymonline_v_9927, https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=thanatosis (last access: 17 January 2025). 2. MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thanatosis#:~:text=than%C2%B7%E2%80%8Ba%C2%B7%E2%80%8Bto,insects%20(as%20beetles)%20when%20disturbed (last access: 17 January 2025). 3. OED – https://www.oed.com/dictionary/thanatosis_n?tab=factsheet#18756529 (last access: 12.01.2025). 4. CED – https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/thanatosis (last access: 17 January 2025). 5. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=THANATOSIS&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 17 January 2025). 6. IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2526098/ (last access: 17 January 2025); ACAOUP – https://academic.oup.com/book/26571/chapter-abstract/195199979?redirectedFrom=fulltext (last access: 17 january 2025).
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CR: catalepsy
