Ingrafts

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The process or act of implanting or inserting living tissue into another part of a living body to promote growth or healing ; the technique of joining parts so that they grow together ; a living piece of tissue implanted for regeneration or repair
2. The surgical procedure of placing tissue from one site into another to encourage biological integration ; the method of joining material by insertion so that it merges with the host ; a small transplanted segment used to repair or replace damaged tissue
3. The act of implanting organic material into a host site for growth or healing purposes ; the joining or fastening by inserting something to promote union ; a piece of tissue or organ inserted in order to restore or enhance function

Etymology: "Ingrafts" is the third-person singular present form of "ingraft", so its history is that of the verb it belongs to. "Ingraft" is built from the prefix "in-" (meaning "into") and "graft", and it carries the older horticultural sense of inserting a shoot or bud from one plant into the stem or branch of another so the two grow together. The medical senses of implanting tissue or organs are extensions of that original gardening image. The base word "graft" is the more interesting part of the story. It came into English from Old French "grafe" (a stylus or pointed instrument), which traces back through Latin "graphium" to Greek "graphein", meaning "to write". The link is that a gardener's cutting, pressed into a split stem, was once compared in shape to a writing implement, so the same root gave English both "graph" and "graft". The verb "ingraft" itself is a compound formed within English, not a separate borrowing.

Synonyms: grafts, transplants, insertions

Antonyms: removals, extractions