A.Word.A.Day--debridement ,
 debridement (di-BREED-ment, day-) noun

   Surgical removal of dead, infected tissue or foreign matter from a wound.

[From French debridement, from debrider (to unbridle), from Middle French
desbrider (de- + brider).]

   "Voluminous clinical studies also indicate that hypnosis can reduce the
   acute pain experienced by patients undergoing burn-wound debridement,
   children enduring bone marrow aspirations and women in labor."
   Michael R Nash, The Truth And the Hype of Hypnosis, Scientific American
   (New York), Jul 2001.

Here is a pop-quiz: how many light-years does it take for an astronomer to
change a light bulb? Answer, of course, is none. She knows a light-year is
a unit of distance, not time. The red-herring word `year' in this term tries
to mislead us. This week brings together words whose meaning is not the first
thing that comes to mind.                                              -Anu

............................................................................
Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big,
worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's
the grain of sand in your shoe. -Robert Service, writer (1874-1958)

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/debridement.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/debridement.ram
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