Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Catheter
/ˈkæθɪtər/noun
A thin tube passed into the body to drain fluid or deliver treatment.
The Greek roots
κατά
katá
down
ἱέναι
hiénai
to send, let go
Literally: “thing let down”
The story of the word
The Greek word also named a plumb line, the weight let straight down to test a wall, and the sense of lowering something in is the common thread. Bronze S-curved catheters for urinary retention survive from Pompeii, so the instrument is older than the English word by fifteen centuries. Benjamin Franklin had a jointed silver one made in 1752 for his brother John, who was in agony with bladder stones.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
catheterizecathodecatalystcatastrophe
In a sentence
The catheter came out on the second day and she was walking by the third.