trepanation

See also: trépanation

English

WOTD – 24 November 2011

Iron Age skull with hole produced by trepanation.

Etymology

From New Latin trepanatio, formed from French trépan (“a drill”), itself from Latin trepanum, ultimately from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “an auger, a drill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹɛpəˈneɪʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

trepanation (countable and uncountable, plural trepanations)

1. The practice of drilling a hole in the skull as a physical, mental, or spiritual treatment.
   • 2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line, Gollancz, page 75:

     Creed had suffered […] a swelling to the brain that the tribe’s chief physic treated with trepanation.

   • 2024 December 10, Tom Phillips, Tiago Rogero, “Brazilian president in intensive care after emergency brain surgery”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     According to the doctors, Lula, 79, underwent a trepanation: having a 3cm hole made in the skull to insert a drain to remove the bleeding.

Synonyms

• (drilling a hole in the skull): trepanning, trephination, trephining

Translations

practice of drilling a hole in the skull

• Arabic: نَقَب الجَمْجَمَة (naqab al-jamjama)
• Armenian: ոսկրաշաղափում (oskrašaġapʻum), գանգահատություն (hy) (gangahatutʻyun)
• Asturian: trepanación f
• Azerbaijani: trepanasiya
• Bashkir: трепанация (trepanatsiya)
• Basque: trepanazio
• Belarusian: трэпанацыя (trepanacyja)
• Bulgarian: трепанация (trepanacija)
• Catalan: trepanació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 頭部穿孔 / 头部穿孔 (tóu bù chuānkǒng)

• Czech: trepanace (cs) f
• Dutch: schedeltrepanatie (nl) f
• Esperanto: trepanado
• Estonian: trepanatsioon (et)
• Finnish: kallonporaus (fi), trepanaatio (fi)
• French: trépanation (fr) f
• Galician: trepanación (gl) f
• Georgian: ტრეპანაცია (ṭreṗanacia)
• German: Trepanation (de) f
• Greek: τρυπανισμός (el) m (trypanismós)
• Hungarian: lékelés (hu)
• Irish: treapánadh f
• Italian: trapanazione f
• Japanese: 穿頭 (せんとう, sentō)
• Kazakh: трепанация (trepanasiä)
• Korean: 천두 (cheondu)
• Kyrgyz: трепанация (trepanatsiya)
• Latvian: trepanācija f
• Lithuanian: trepanacija f
• Macedonian: трепанација f (trepanacija)
• Polish: trepanacja f
• Portuguese: trepanação f
• Romanian: trepanație (ro) f
• Russian: трепана́ция (ru) f (trepanácija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трепана́ција f

  Roman: trepanácija (sh) f

• Slovak: trepanácia f
• Spanish: trepanación (es) f
• Tajik: трепанация (trepanatsiya)
• Tatar: трепанация (trepanatsiyä)
• Turkish: trepanasyon
• Turkmen: trepanasiýa
• Ukrainian: трепана́ція f (trepanácija)
• Uzbek: trepanatsiya (uz)
• Yakut: трепанация (trepanatsiya)

See also

• burr hole
• craniotomy

Further reading

• trepanation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• parentation