A Suture, a Seam and a Sutra Are All Sewing
A suture is a surgical stitch. The Latin root means to sew, and it is related to seam, sew and even the Sanskrit word sutra.
A suture is a stitch closing a wound, or the joint between two bones of the skull. The Indo-European root for sewing runs a long way: Latin *suere* gave *suture*, English inherited *sew* and *seam* directly, and Sanskrit *sutra* — a thread — is the same root, which is why a sutra is a text of threaded-together aphorisms.
- A surgical stitch. *Ten sutures.*
- A skull joint. *The coronal suture.*
- Verb, to stitch. *The wound was sutured.*
- Suture line — where two edges meet. *A clean suture line.*
- Dissolvable sutures — those the body absorbs. *Dissolvable sutures were used.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | suture | A neat suture. |
| Plural | sutures | Remove the sutures. |
| Verb | suture | Suture the incision. |
| Related | seam | A straight seam. |
| Related | sew | Sew it up. |
- The sutures come out in ten days.Surgery.
- The skull sutures fuse in early adulthood.Anatomy.
- The wound was sutured under local anaesthetic.The verb.
The sewing family across languages
- English sew and seam — inherited directly from Germanic
- Latin suere — gave suture and, through French, couture
- Sanskrit sutra — a thread, hence a text of strung-together lines
- Greek hymen — a membrane, from a related root meaning to bind
- All from one ancient root meaning to stitch
Latin *sutura*, a seam, from *suere*, to sew. English took it as a surgical and anatomical term in the 1500s.
Are sutures the same as stitches?
In practice yes. Suture is the technical term for both the material and the stitch itself.
Is sutra really related?
Yes. Sanskrit sutra means a thread, from the same Indo-European root as Latin suere and English sew.