Other forms: stethoscopes
A stethoscope is the instrument a doctor wears round the neck to listen to your heart. Two earpieces, a tube, and a cold metal disc.
It was invented in 1816 by a French doctor who was too embarrassed to put his ear against a young woman's chest and rolled up a sheet of paper instead. The principle has not changed. Doctors use it for the heart, the lungs and the gut, and it remains the most recognisable symbol of the profession. The word is built from Greek parts meaning chest and look at.
1nounstethoscopeA medical instrument for listening to sounds inside the body.
“She warmed the stethoscope before using it.”
French
stéthoscope
English, today
stethoscope
Borrowed from French stéthoscope, a word coined by its inventor, physician René Laennec, equivalent to stetho + scope.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA