fenestrum

English

Noun

fenestrum (plural fenestra or fenestrums)

1. A hole or opening.
   • 1891, Dan Millikin, “A Child’s Arm Engaged in the Fenestrum of the Obstetric Forceps”, in Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery, volume 70, Nashville, Tenn., page 15:

     I cannot believe that the most expert obstetrician could have detected the presence of the arm in the fenestrum before the attempted withdrawal of the instruments. For this reason I am ready to inquire whether the fenestrum has any reason to exist. What is it good for, anyway? It has been said in most of the systemic treatises that the fenestrum gives lightness to the forceps, but this proposition, which is at first glance very plausible, admits of question. […] In any instrument shop we may find examples of forceps which appear to have passed through this line of development; they are light blades with big fenestra and thick metal.

   • 1899, The Philadelphia Medical Journal, page 79, column 1:

     Stitching up fenestrums in the mesentery and the puncture holes completes the operation.

   • 1905, The American Year-Book of Medicine and Surgery, Philadelphia, Pa., London: W. B. Saunders & Company, page 55:

     Fig. 5.—Erdman’s Modified Allis inhaler: A, B, Metal frame; C, side plate pushed back to open fenestrums;

   • 1908 December 5, The Builder, volume XCV, number 3435, page 633, column 1:

     Fenestrums are formed in the tear wall of the condensation receiver, which are surrounded by flanges partially broken away to admit the passage of air to the space between the tank and the condensation receiver.

   • 1912, The Year Book of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, page 302:

     The fenestrum of the guillotine is placed over the tonsil as far posteriorly as possible, then firm pressure is made forward, forcing the gland against the alveolar eminence of the jaw.

   • 1914, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, page 454:

     On the opposite lateral surface to this is a second similar lateral fenestrum, which begins 3 cm. from the tip of the tube. The fenestrum is placed at this point not only to permit free siphonage of gastric contents, but also to facilitate the introduction of the tube. […] Eight centimeters from the tip of the tube are placed three round fenestra, of a diameter of 2 mm.

   • 1921 March, “How to Prepare a Medical Article”, in The American Journal of Surgery, volume XXXV, number 3, page 69:

     On the other hand, don’t be pedantic—if you want to come into this school of modernized medical English. You must not write “fenestra” (plural, “fenestrae”), but “fenestrum” (plural, “fenestra”); you are not in Rome so you don’t have to say what the Romans would have said. Therefore also say “this data,” instead of “these data.”