Rhytidectomies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surgical procedure involving the removal of excess skin and fat from the face and neck to reduce the appearance of wrinkles
2. A type of cosmetic surgery aimed at tightening the skin on the face and neck by excising sagging tissue
3. An operation that enhances facial aesthetics by eliminating wrinkles through the resection of skin and underlying structures

Etymology: The plural here is simple: "rhytidectomies" is the plural of "rhytidectomy", a surgical term built from two Greek-derived pieces. The first, "rhytid", comes from the Greek word for a wrinkle, and in medical usage it refers to an undesirable wrinkle in the skin. The second, "-ectomy", means excision, the cutting out of something, and it comes from the Greek "ektomē", a noun from "ektemnein", meaning to cut out. Medical writers combined these to name an operation that cuts away facial wrinkles. The second element is the more productive one. "-ectomy" is attached to the names of many organs and tissues to name their surgical removal, so a word like "appendectomy" follows the same pattern. Here the suffix is attached to a root meaning a skin wrinkle instead of an organ, which makes the term describe the purpose of the operation directly.