Tubes

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /tuːbz/

Definitions

1. Cylindrical containers designed to carry fluids or gases in numerous fields, such as manufacturing and healthcare are referred to as such
2. Long, hollow shapes used to transport liquids, gases, or wires ; devices in electronics that control electron flow ; containers shaped as cylinders to hold creams or gels
3. Hollow cylindrical structures that serve to guide fluids or support cables ; glass or metal devices used to amplify electrical signals ; cylindrical vessels that dispense products like toothpaste or ointment

Etymology: "Tubes" is the plural of "tube", and the noun reaches back to a Latin word for a pipe or a war-trumpet. Latin "tubus" meant a tube or pipe, and it sat in a family of words that included "tuba", a long trumpet used in battle. The same Latin root is linked, though the connection is uncertain, to "tibia", a word that could mean both a shinbone and a reed-pipe. So the bones of the leg and the instrument that played across a battlefield may share an ancestor in a sense of hollow, pipe-like length. The word came into English through Middle French "tube", which had taken the Latin form directly. "Tube" and the older Latin "tubus" are doublets: two forms of one word, one arriving through French and the other kept closer to its Latin shape. English thus took the word twice over, in a sense, though the Latin form itself is not the one readers use today.

Synonyms: cylinders, pipes, hollows