Stitches are threads a doctor sews to hold a cut closed. Get stitches, have the stitches out, four stitches in his knee.
They go in within hours because a wound left open closes badly, and dissolving ones save a second visit. In stitches means laughing helplessly, from the stitch of pain in the side. A stitch in time saves nine is about sewing rather than surgery.
1nounstitchesThreads sewn to hold a wound closed.
“She cut her hand on broken glass and needed six stitches.”
stitches is a medical treatment.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)teyg- — to stab, pierce
Proto-Germanic
*stikiz — prick, piercing, stitch
Proto-West Germanic
*stiki
Old English
stiċe — a prick, puncture, stab, thrust with a pointed implement, pricking sensation, stitch, pain in the side, sting
Middle English
stiche
English
stitch
English, today
stitches
stitch comes from Middle English stiche, from Old English stiċe (“a prick, puncture, stab, thrust with a pointed implement, pricking sensation, stitch, pain in the side, sting”), from Proto-West Germanic stiki, from Proto-Germanic stikiz (“prick, piercing, stitch”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)teyg- (“to stab, pierce”). Cognate with Dutch steek (“prick, stitch”), German Stich (“a prick, piercing, stitch”), Old English stician (“to stick, stab, pierce, prick”). More at stick. Via PIE cognate with Czech steh, Polish ścieg, Russian стежо́к.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA