Reamed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made larger or more precisely shaped by using a specialized cutting tool to remove material from the inside of a hole
2. Smoothed and expanded internally by a rotary cutting instrument to improve fit or finish
3. Processed by a device that enlarges and refines the inner surface of an opening

Etymology: The verb "ream" has two unrelated ancestors that happen to share a spelling. The more familiar one, the paper measure, comes from Arabic: "rizma" meant "bundle," and it passed through Catalan and Old French into Middle English as "reme," used for a bundle of paper. The tool sense has a murkier past. Its probable source is a separate English word that meant to make room or clear out, related to Dutch "ruimen" (to empty) and German "räumen" (to make room), and the verb's spelling may have been shaped by the older word for cream, which the source tentatively links to it. Reaming, the process of enlarging a hole with a fluted cutter, is therefore a verb whose Arabic-derived noun for stacked paper has nothing to do with it. Its meaning is about clearing space, a sense that survives in the German and Dutch cognates. The two strands only came together in English through spelling and later usage, so the tool and the paper measure are linguistic strangers wearing the same clothes.

Synonyms: enlarged, broadened, expanded, opened, stretched