Mammoplasty

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Surgery performed to alter the size, shape or appearance of a breast, often for cosmetic or reconstructive reasons
2. A surgical procedure that reshapes or resizes the breasts, typically carried out for aesthetic purposes or after medical treatment
3. The operation of modifying the form of the breast through surgical intervention, whether to enhance appearance or restore it

Etymology: "Mammoplasty" is a plain modern medical compound, built from two parts: "mammo-", from Latin "mamma" (breast), and "-plasty", a combining form meaning surgical reshaping or repair. The second element has a deeper pedigree than the first. It comes from the Greek verb "plassein" (to mould or shape, as with clay), whose root gave Greek "plastos" (moulded or formed), and English borrowed the idea through the modern scientific habit of coining surgical terms from classical Greek building blocks. The result is a word that sounds ancient but was assembled for clinical use. The "-plasty" element is what makes the whole family of surgical terms work. Words like "rhinoplasty" (nose reshaping) and "blepharoplasty" (eyelid surgery) share it, so once a reader knows the suffix, the meaning of each new term is largely self-explanatory. The "mammo-" part is the only piece that changes, pointing the procedure at the breast.

Synonyms: mammaplasty