acupuncture

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ-der.

Latin acus

Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ-der.

Proto-Italic *pungō

Latin pungō

Latin pūnctus

Latin -tura

Latin pūnctūra

New Latin acūpūnctūralbor.

English acupuncture

Learned borrowing from New Latin acūpūnctūra, from Latin acus + pūnctūra. First attested in 1684. By surface analysis, acu- +‎ puncture.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæ.kjuˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃɝ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

acupuncture (usually uncountable, plural acupunctures)

1. The insertion of needles into the (living) tissue of the body affecting the Qi or energy along energetic pathways of the body called meridians. This modality is traditionally used as a form of internal medical treating all disease and illnesses, in Western countries it is widely used for the purposes of pain relief.
   • 1974 October 16, “Acupuncture”, in The Jerusalem Post‎^[1], volume XLIV, number 14221, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

     Chinese doctors at Chishan County Hospital in Shansi Province have used acupuncture on the scalp to cure a patient suffering from paralysis of the right limbs caused by inflammation of the brain’s blood vessels.

Derived terms

• acupoint
• acupunctural
• acupuncturist
• auriculoacupuncture
• colorpuncture
• electroacupuncture

 

Translations

insertion of needles for remedial purposes

• Afrikaans: akupunktuur (af)
• Arabic: الوَخْز بِالْإِبْر f (al-waḵz bi-l-ʔibr)
• Armenian: ասեղնաբուժություն (hy) (aseġnabužutʻyun)
• Assamese: আকুপাংচাৰ (akupaṅsar)
• Asturian: acupuntura f
• Azerbaijani: akupunktura
• Basque: akupuntura
• Belarusian: акупункту́ра f (akupunktúra)
• Bengali: আকুপাংচার (akupaṅcar)
• Bulgarian: акупункту́ра f (akupunktúra)
• Catalan: acupuntura (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᏴᎩ ᎠᏑᎶᏙᏗᏍᎩ (yvgi asulododisgi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 針灸 / 针灸 (zam¹ gau³), 針術 / 针术 (zam¹ seot⁶)

  Hakka: 針灸 / 针灸 (chṳ̂m-kiu)

  Hokkien: 針灸 / 针灸 (zh-min-nan) (chiam-kù)

  Mandarin: 針灸 / 针灸 (zh) (zhēnjiǔ), 針術 / 针术 (zh) (zhēnshù)

• Czech: akupunktura (cs) f
• Danish: akupunktur (da) c
• Dutch: acupunctuur (nl) f
• Esperanto: akupunkturo (eo)
• Estonian: akupunktuur, nõelravi
• Faroese: akupunktur m
• Finnish: akupunktio (fi)
• French: acupuncture (fr) f
• Galician: acupuntura f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Akupunktur (de) f
• Greek: βελονισμός (el) m (velonismós)
• Hebrew: דִּקּוּר סִינִי / דיקור סיני (he) m (dikur sini)
• Hindi: एक्यूपंक्चर (ekyūpaṅkcar)
• Hungarian: akupunktúra (hu)
• Icelandic: nálastungulækningar m
• Indonesian: akupunktur (id), tusuk jarum (id)
• Interlingua: acupunctura
• Irish: snáthaidpholladh m
• Italian: agopuntura (it) f
• Japanese: 鍼 (ja) (はり, hari), 鍼治療 (ja) (はりちりょう, harichiryō), 鍼治 (ja) (しんじ, shinji), 鍼術 (ja) (しんじゅつ, shinjutsu)
• Kannada: ಸೂಜಿ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆ (kn) (sūji cikitse), ಸೂಜಿಮಾಂಜುಗೆ (kn) (sūjimāñjuge)
• Kazakh: акупунктура (akupunktura)
• Khmer: ការចាក់ម្ជុលវិទ្យាសាស្ត្រ (km) (kaacakmculvɨtyiəsaahtrɑɑ)
• Korean: 침술 (ko) (chimsul)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: akupunktur (ku)

• Kyrgyz: акупунктура (ky) (akupunktura)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: akupunktūra f
• Lithuanian: akupunktūra f
• Lü: ᦚᧂᦃᦲᧄ (ḟangẋiim)
• Luxembourgish: Akupunktur f
• Macedonian: акупункту́ра f (akupunktúra)
• Malagasy: tsindrona volamena
• Malay: akupunktur
• Maori: hauora-ā-ngira, haumanu-ā-ngira
• Marathi: ॲक्युपंक्चर (ĕkyupaṅkcar)
• Mongolian: зүү эмчилгээ (züü emčilgee)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: akupunktur (no) m

  Nynorsk: akupunktur m

• Occitan: acupontura f
• Persian: طب سوزنی (fa) (tebb-e suzani)
• Polish: akupunktura (pl) f
• Portuguese: acupuntura (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਐਕਿਉਪੰਕਚਰ (aikiupaṅkcar)
• Romanian: acupunctură (ro) f
• Russian: акупункту́ра (ru) f (akupunktúra), иглоука́лывание (ru) n (igloukályvanije), ѝглорефлѐксотерапи́я (ru) f (ìgloreflèksoterapíja), ѝглотерапи́я (ru) f (ìgloterapíja)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: акупункту́ра f

  Roman: akupunktúra (sh) f

• Sinhalese: කටු චිකිත්සාව n (kaṭu cikitsāwa), කටු වෙදකම n (kaṭu wedakama)
• Slovak: akupunktúra (sk) f
• Slovene: akupunktura f
• Spanish: acupuntura (es) f
• Swedish: akupunktur (sv) c
• Tagalog: akupungktura
• Tamil: குத்தூசி மருத்துவம் (kuttūci maruttuvam)
• Telugu: ఆక్యుపంక్చర్ (ākyupaṅkcar)
• Thai: การฝังเข็ม (th) (gaan-fǎng-kěm), ฝังเข็ม (th) (fǎng-kěm)
• Turkish: akupunktur (tr)
• Ukrainian: акупункту́ра f (akupunktúra)
• Uzbek: akupunktura (uz)
• Vietnamese: châm cứu (vi)
• Welsh: aciwbigo m

Verb

acupuncture (third-person singular simple present acupunctures, present participle acupuncturing, simple past and past participle acupunctured)

1. (transitive) To treat with acupuncture.

Translations

to treat with acupuncture

• Finnish: hoitaa akupunktiolla, antaa akupunktiohoitoa
• Portuguese: acupunturar (pt)
• Russian: де́лать иглоука́лывание n (délatʹ igloukályvanije), де́лать акупункту́ру f (délatʹ akupunktúru)

See also

• acupressure (noun)

French

Alternative forms

• acuponcture (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin acūpūnctūra, from Latin acus + pūnctūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ky.pɔ̃k.tyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

acupuncture f (plural acupunctures)

1. acupuncture

Descendants

• → Turkish: akupunktur

Further reading

• “acupuncture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.