Treppan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surgical tool used to bore holes into bone, typically the skull, to relieve pressure or access the brain
2. A handheld device designed to cut or drill circular openings in bone for medical procedures
3. An instrument employed by surgeons to perforate bone tissue as part of certain treatments or operations

Etymology: The surgical instrument takes its name from the Greek "trypanon," a borer, which comes from "trypan," to bore through. The idea is literal: the tool's job was to drill a hole. The Greek word passed into Medieval Latin as "trepanum" and then into Old French, and English borrowed it from there for the surgical tool. The same sound and spelling also carry a second English sense, to ensnare or entrap. That verb appears to be linked to the older idea of a trap, not to the drill itself, so the two uses are probably related through the Old French rather than through a single meaning. The Greek root has another modern descendant: "trypanosome," the name for a group of parasitic microorganisms, was coined from "trypanon" plus "soma," body, because of the drill-like shape of these organisms.

Synonyms: trephine, drill, borer, hole cutter, drill bit