Cadaver comes from Latin cadaver (corpse), from cadere (to fall) — death understood as the body's final fall.
From Latin cadaver, meaning 'a dead body, corpse,' from cadere (to fall). The metaphor is of death as falling — the body falls and does not rise. A medieval folk etymology claimed CADAVER was an acronym for caro data vermibus ('flesh given to worms'), which is false but memorably gruesome. Key roots: cadere (Latin: "to fall").