Advertisement

Origin and history of lithotripsy

lithotripsy(n.)

operation of crushing a stone in the bladder, 1834, from litho- "stone" + -tripsy, from Greek tripsis "rubbing, friction," from tribein "to rub, thresh, pound, wear out," from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn." Klein says the intended Greek word is thryptein "to crush" and there has been "confusion" with tribein.

Entries linking to lithotripsy

before vowels, lith-, word-forming element meaning "stone, rock;" from Greek lithos "stone, a precious stone, marble; a piece on a game board," a word of unknown origin.

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It might form all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    Share lithotripsy

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Advertisement