tenaculum

English

Etymology

From Latin tenaculum.

Noun

tenaculum (plural tenacula or tenaculums)

1. A medical instrument consisting of a sharp hook attached to a handle; used mainly for taking up arteries and the like.
   • 1909, Woods Hutchinson, Preventable Diseases‎^[1]:

     It was a recognized procedure in those days (and is resorted to still), when all medical, electrical, and other remedial measures had failed to relieve a furious neuralgia, for the surgeon to cut down upon the nerve-trunk, free it from its surrounding attachments, and, slipping his tenaculum or finger under it, stretch the nerve with a considerable degree of force.

   • 2013, Mitchel S. Hoffman, William N. Spellacy, The Difficult Vaginal Hysterectomy: A Surgical Atlas, →ISBN, page 62:

     Additional tenaculums are placed laterally to maintain control Within the bounds of the broad ligaments and yet allow maximum feasible removal.

Latin

Etymology

Late Latin. From teneō +‎ -culum.

Noun

tenāculum n (genitive tenāculī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) instrument for gripping

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	tenāculum	tenācula
genitive	tenāculī	tenāculōrum
dative	tenāculō	tenāculīs
accusative	tenāculum	tenācula
ablative	tenāculō	tenāculīs
vocative	tenāculum	tenācula

Descendants

• English: tenaculum
• French: tenaille
• Italian: tenacolo
• Portuguese: tenáculo, tenalha
• Spanish: tenáculo

References

• “tenaculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tenaculum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tenaculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.