Bronchoclast

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical instrument used to dilate or widen a narrowed airway passage within the lungs
2. A surgical tool designed to open up a constricted bronchial tube during a procedure
3. An implement that stretches a stricture in one of the branching airways of the lungs

Etymology: In Greek medicine, "bronkhos" was the windpipe, the root of "bronchus" and "bronchitis". The second element comes from "klastes", meaning "breaker", from the verb "klan", "to break", which also gives English "iconoclast", a breaker of sacred images. Joined together, the parts describe a device for breaking up a narrowing in the airways. The compound is a modern medical coinage, not an ancient one. Physicians assembled it from classical elements to name an instrument for opening a constricted bronchus, so an ancient Greek would have recognised each piece but not the whole. The same "-clast" ending appears in other technical terms for tools and agents that break things down.

Synonyms: bronchodilator

Antonyms: bronchoconstrictor