Syringotomies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surgical procedure involving the creation of an opening into a cyst or cavity in order to drain its contents
2. An operation aimed at relieving symptoms associated with cysts by puncturing the cyst wall
3. The act of performing a procedure that involves accessing and draining fluid from a fluid-filled sac within the body

Etymology: "Syringotomies" is the plural of "syringotomy," a surgical term for cutting open a cyst, and its first half comes from a Greek word for a pipe. Ancient Greek "surinx" (σῦριγξ) meant a reed pipe, the kind played as a musical instrument, and it was also used for a fistula, a narrow tube-like sore or abscess that drains through the skin. Physicians took the word for this sort of channel, and the pipe-shaped meaning passed into medical Greek. The second half, "-tomy," comes from Greek "-tomia," from "temnein," meaning "to cut," and appears in many surgical terms such as "appendectomy" and "lobotomy." Combining the two gives a literal sense of cutting into a pipe-like sore, and the term is modelled on French "syringotomie." Because the word was assembled from Greek parts for a specialised procedure, it belongs to the family of modern medical coinages rather than to everyday ancient vocabulary.