Catheter

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkæθɪtə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A medical device used to drain fluids or deliver treatments through passage into vessels or cavities
2. An instrument utilized for administering medication or removing bodily fluids via insertion into the body
3. A flexible tube inserted into a body cavity or blood vessel to facilitate medical procedures or fluid management

Etymology: The Greek word behind "catheter" literally meant "let down," and it originally named a surgical tool for draining the bladder. Ancient Greek "kathiēmi" combined "kata-," meaning "down," with "hiēmi," meaning "to send" or "to let go," and the suffix "-tēr" turned the verb into a noun for the instrument doing the lowering. The idea was a tube sent down into the body to let something out. The word travelled through Late Latin as "cathetēr" and then into French as "cathéter," and English borrowed it from French. Its meaning has stayed remarkably close to that first sense: a hollow tube inserted into the body, once to empty the bladder and now also to deliver medicine or pull fluids from the body. A modern central line, used for long-term intravenous access during chemotherapy or dialysis, is a descendant of the same principle, a tube let down into a vein.

Synonyms: tube, cannula