tenaculum

Etymology

Latin tenaculum

Noun

tenaculum (plural tenacula)

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:

     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.

Etymology

Late Latin. From teneō.

Noun

tenaculum

1. (Late Latin) instrument for gripping

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, 1883–1887)
• tenaculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette