Chirurgie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A branch of medicine dealing with the treatment of injuries or disorders through operative procedures
2. Involves surgical intervention to repair or remove tissues, organs, or tumors for health restoration
3. The field that encompasses various techniques for invasive medical treatments, including operations and procedures requiring precision and skill

Etymology: "Chirurgie" is an older English spelling, now rare, of the word "surgery," and the two came into English by the same route. Its ancestor is the Greek "kheirourgia," built from "kheir," meaning "hand," and "ergon," meaning "work." The literal sense was manual work, and the Romans took it over as "chirurgia" for the handling of wounds and bodily ailments by hand. Middle English borrowed the word through Old French, where it appeared as "cirurgie," and it kept its spelling for centuries before English settled on the form we use now. The spelling "chirurgie" thus preserves the Greek and Latin shape more closely, with its "ch" and "ir" intact. Because the word arrived twice, once through Old French and once directly through Latin in its own form, English ended up with two versions of the same term. "Surgery" is the modern form that prevailed, and "chirurgy" and "chirurgie" survive as its doublets.

Synonyms: surgery