Arteriectomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surgical procedure in which an artery is completely removed from the body
2. The excision or extraction of an artery during a surgical operation
3. A surgical intervention involving the removal of a diseased or damaged artery

Etymology: "Arteriectomy" is a plain technical coinage, built from "arterio-", the combining form of Greek "artēria" (windpipe, later the blood vessel), and "-ectomy", from Greek "ektomē" (a cutting out). Together they name the surgical removal of an artery or a portion of one. Because both parts come from classical Greek, the word can look ancient, but it was assembled in modern medical language rather than inherited from antiquity. The Greek "artēria" is itself a surprise: Greek writers originally applied it to the windpipe, and it was only later that the word came to mean the vessels carrying blood.

Synonyms: arterial excision