Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Gastrectomy
/ɡæsˈtrɛktəmi/noun
Surgical removal of all or part of the stomach.
The Greek roots
γαστήρ
gastḗr
stomach, belly
ἐκτομή
ektomḗ
cutting out, excision
Literally: “cutting out the stomach”
The story of the word
Two blunt pieces: belly, and the act of cutting something out. Theodor Billroth removed a cancerous stomach in Vienna in 1881 and the patient survived the operation, which turned the word from a proposal into a procedure surgeons could name. The ending is worth keeping straight: -ectomy takes an organ away, while -otomy only cuts into it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
gastricgastronomyappendectomytracheotomy
In a sentence
After a partial gastrectomy he had to eat six small meals a day.
The team discussed gastrectomy against chemotherapy first.