catgut
/ˈkætˌɡʌt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.67 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A cord of great toughness made from the intestines of animals, especially of sheep, used for strings of musical instruments, racquets, sutures etc.
Countable
Example Sentences
- "The thing about Proust is his combination of the utmost sensibility with the utmost tenacity. He searches out these butterfly shades to the last grain. He is as tough as catgut & as evanescent as a butterfly's bloom."
- "Eventually they carved small paddles to strike the ball and refined this implement with a mesh of catgut."
- "The absorbable suture, catgut, is made of collagen derived from sheep intestinal submucosa. It is usually treated with a chromic salt to increase its strength and is crosslinked to retard resorption. Such treatment extends the life of catgut suture from 3–7 days up to 20–40 days."
Etymology
Possibly an abbreviation of the word cattlegut. Alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring — the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for a young cat.