body snatcher

English

Alternative forms

• bodysnatcher, body-snatcher

Etymology

From body + snatcher. Later use highly influenced by the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers and its repeated adaptation into film, wherein aliens begin replacing humans with pod people.

Pronunciation

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Noun

body snatcher (plural body snatchers)

1. (slang, humorous, derogatory, obsolete) One who makes arrests, such as a bailiff or policeman.
   • 1778 August 19, Public Advertiser:

     They proved to be two of those Body-Snatchers, called hired Constables, who were patrolling the Fields.

   • 1877, R. Rae, Newport, section 40:

     Look here, my body-snatchers, you have unlawfully abridged the liberty of one of the sons of the sovereign State of New York!

2. One who abducts or controls another's body, such as a slaver, psychic, or human resources agent.
   • 1852, B.R. Hall, Frank Freeman's Barber Shop, xiv. 252:

     A black woman told Carrie not to say master and missis, because you were body-snatchers and slave-drivers.

   • 1894 September, Harper's Magazine, 581/2:

     Girls who can't let a man go by without reaching out for him. That's what I call them—body snatchers.

   • 1961 June, Fortune, 129/1:

     McCulloch had no compunction about using these executive recruiting firms. They were, he knew, often derisively called ‘body snatchers’, ‘head hunters’, ‘flesh peddlers’, and ‘pirates’.

   • 1994 August 9, “Newswire”, in Associated Press:

     South claims hundreds abducted by North Korea's ‘body snatchers’.

   • 2000, C. Golden, Head Games, section 166:

     ‘What are you looking at?’
     ‘An alien body snatcher who stole my partner and took her place.’

3. (historical) One who sells cadavers to anatomists, surgeons, etc., especially by exhuming corpses from graves, a resurrection man.
   • 1819, J. H. Vaux, “New Vocab. Flash Lang.”, in Memoirs:

     Body-snatcher, a stealer of dead bodies from churchyards; which are sold to the surgeons and students in anatomy.

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

     So emboldened and careless did these body-snatchers become... that they no longer confined themselves to pauper graves.

4. (in particular) A graverobber who steals bodies or body parts.
   • 2008 March 19, Daily Record, Glasgow, section 9:

     The head of a ring of bodysnatchers who stole the bones of broadcaster Alistair Cooke pleaded guilty yesterday.

5. (British, military, slang) A stretcher-bearer.
   • 1917, General Buller, quotee, Military Medicine, volume 40, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 341:

     No men could have behaved more admirably than my Imperial bearer companies, or 'body snatchers,' as the men used to call them.

   • 1951, Great Britain. Army. Royal Army Medical Corps, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, volumes 96-97, J. Bale, Sons & Danielson, Limited, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 410:

     Freezing conditions in the hills make essential the quick evacuation of wounded, and their regimental mates are full of praise for the sterling job done by the cheerful, tireless “body-snatchers” of the Battalion.

   • 2011, Robert W. Mackay, Soldier of the Horse, TouchWood Editions, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 185:

     Tom dismounted and led Toby toward a group of men standing by a stack of stretchers. “Hey, you body snatchers,” he called out. “I have a wound that needs dressing.” He tied Toby to a stretcher.

Synonyms

• (alien) pod person
• (corpse-stealer) resurrection man, resurrectionist

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "body snatcher, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2010.
• “body-snatcher”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.