tenaculum

Latin tenaculum

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:

     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.

Late Latin. From teneō.

tenaculum

1. (Late Latin) instrument for gripping

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

• 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