auto-, aut-

(Greek: self, same, spontaneous; directed from within)

auto-ophthalmoscope, autophthalmoscope
An ophthalmoscope with which an examiner may view his/her own eyes.
auto-ophthalmoscopy
The examination of the interior of one's own eye.
autooxidation, auto-oxidation, autoxidation
Oxidation spontaneously occurring in the presence of air and not requiring catalysts.
autoparthenogenesis
The development of an unfertilized egg that has been activated by a chemical or physical stimulus.
autopath
1. Any individual with an allergic diasthesis.
2. Someone who is liable to suffer from allergic disorders.
autopathography (s) (noun), autopathographies (pl)
A written account of an illness prepared by the affected patient: Mr. Smith had a strong urge to write an autopathography, describing the symptoms and effects his illness had on the rest of his life.
autopelagic (adjective) (not comparable)
Referring to planktonic organisms living continually at the sea surface; epipelagic: Autopelagic creatures exist down to about 200 meters in the ocean, which is the upper stratum of the oceanic zone where there is enough light present for photosynthesis to occur.
autopepsia, autolysis
Rarely used term for self-digestion, said of ulceration of the gastric mucous membrane by its own secretion, or the digestion of the skin surrounding a gastrostomy or colostomy opening.
autophage, autophagous, autophagy
1. Self-devouring; the biting or eating of one’s own flesh.
2. The nutrition of the body by the consumption of its own tissues; the feeding upon oneself, sustenance of life during the process of starvation by absorption of the tissues of the body.
3. A reference to precocious offspring who are capable of locating and securing their own food.
autophagi
Birds that are able to run around and obtain their own food as soon as they are hatched.
autophagia
1. The biting or eating of one's own flesh.
2. The intracellular digestion of endogenous material of the cell within a lysosome.
3. The recycling of the body of its own tissue during starvation.
autophagocytosis
The segregation and degradation of damaged or unwanted cytoplasmic constituents by autophagic vacuoles (cytolysosomes) composed of lysosomes containing cellular components in the process of digestion; it plays an important role in metamorphosis of amphibians, in the removal of bone by osteoclasts, and in the degradation of normal cell components in nutritional deficiency states.
autophanous
Self-luminous; that is, emitting or reflecting light.
autopharmacology
The regulation of body functions by the activity of natural, endogenous, chemical constituents of the tissues.
autophile (s) (noun), autophiles (pl)
1. Someone who loves himself or herself: Janet couldn't make friends easily with others because she was an autophile and really cared for herself and did not respect others.
2. An individual who is very fond of self-propelling vehicles: Since Joe didn't have much money, and, as an autophile, loved old cars, he collected photos of them, but not the actual cars of the 1920s and 1930s!

Inter-related cross references, directly or indirectly, involving word units dealing with "equal, identical, same, similar": emul-; equ-, equi-; homeo-; homo-; iso-; pari-; peer; rhomb-; syn-; tauto-.