repr. Gr. αὐτο- ‘self, one’s own, by oneself, independent-ly,’ combining form of αὐτός self. Exceedingly common in Gr.; in L. only in a few words adopted from Gr. without analysis, as autochthones, autographus, automatus; more common in med.L.; and largely used in the mod. langs. In Eng., to a certain extent, a living element, prefixable to scientific terms denoting action or operation, whence occasionally to others, in combinations that are more or less nonce-words.
Such are as follows: auto-catalepsy, catalepsy self-produced; auto-coprophagous a., eating its own dung; auto-criticism, criticism of oneself or one’s own works; auto-infection, self-infection; auto-infra-glottic a., of what is below one’s own glottis; auto-inoculation, self-inoculation, whence auto-inoculable a.; auto-laryngoscopy, examination of one’s own larynx, whence auto-laryngoscopic a., auto-laryngoscopist; auto-portrait, a portrait drawn by any one of himself; auto-portraiture, portraiture of oneself; auto-prothesis, self-produced or spontaneous prothesis; auto-psychology, psychological study of oneself. So auto-burglar, etc.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, Epil. Unattributable even to autocatalepsy.
1880. Swinburne, in Fortn. Rev., 719. Obscurity … proper to such autocoprophagous animals.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 June, 11/1. Another literary curiosity is an autocriticism of ‘Christie Johnstone’ [by Chas. Reade].
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 135. Auto-infection … is not seen equally in all the sorts of infectious tumours.
1872. Cohen, Dis. Throat, 45. A series of auto-infra-glottic examinations.
1874. Van Buren, Dis. Urin. Org., 19. Auto-inoculation is the proper test. Ibid. Auto-inoculable.
1870. A. Durham, in Syst. Surg., IV. 527. By Auto-laryngoscopy, or by the examination of the Larynx of some living subject.
1872. Cohen, Dis. Throat, 35. The practice of the auto-laryngoscopist.
1828. Edin. Rev., XLVIII. 468. The auto-portrait they present.
1881. Times, 2 Feb., 12/1. Dental autoprothesis with aurification.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle, I. (1874), 1. The Vita Nuova (the Autobiography or Autopsychology of Dante’s youth).
1884. Reade, Singleheart, v. 105. No drunkard and auto-burglar to drain the wife’s purse.
