Lancet

How to spell lancet

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lancet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lancet mean?

1. nounA small, sharp, usually two-edged surgical instrument used to make a quick cut or puncture in the skin.
2. nounA tall, narrow window or arch with a sharply pointed top, characteristic of early Gothic architecture.

Lancet in a sentence

• The nurse used a sterile lancet to take a drop of blood from his finger.

• Morning light streamed through the slender lancet above the altar.

• Diabetics often carry a fresh lancet for each glucose test.

• The cathedral's east wall is pierced by a row of narrow lancet windows.

Where does lancet come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French lancette, a diminutive of lance, meaning 'a little lance' or small spear. That in turn rests on the Latin lancea, a light throwing spear, the very same root that gives English the everyday word 'lance'. English adopted lancet in the late 1300s, first for the small, sharp, two-edged surgical blade once used to open veins for bloodletting and to lance boils. From the slender, pointed shape of that blade the word was later borrowed by architects to describe the tall, narrow, sharply pointed window and arch of the Gothic style. The famous British medical journal The Lancet, founded in 1823, took its name from the instrument, deliberately suggesting a sharp cut into received ideas. The spelling trap is the soft 'c' before 'e', sounded like 's', and the unstressed second syllable that hides whether it is '-cet' or '-set'.

How the word is built

• lance (from Latin lancea: a light spear)
• -et (diminutive suffix: little)