Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Episiotomy
/ɪˌpiːziˈɒtəmi/noun
A surgical cut made to widen the vaginal opening during childbirth.
The Greek roots
ἐπίσιον
epísion
pubic region
τομή
tomḗ
a cutting
Literally: “a cutting of the pubic region”
The story of the word
The operation is older than the word. A Dublin midwifery treatise of 1742 described making the cut in an obstructed delivery, and it stayed a rare emergency measure until the twentieth century, when it briefly became near-routine in hospital birth. Evidence from the 1980s onward reversed that, and the Greek name now covers a procedure most guidelines tell clinicians to avoid unless indicated.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → medical coinage → English
- First recorded
- late 19th century
Same family
anatomytonsillectomyatomdichotomy
In a sentence
Her birth plan asked for no episiotomy unless the baby was in distress.
Rates of episiotomy fell sharply once trials showed routine use did not prevent severe tearing.