Etymograph

English

curette

Curette comes from French curer ‘to clean out, scrape out’, and goes back to Latin cūrō ‘to heal, cure’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcūrō1as cūrāre‘to heal, cure’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400curer1‘to clean’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentcurer2‘to clean out, scrape out’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentcurette2
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2008curette2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French curer
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English curette
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Cecilia Gorrel, Small Animal Dentistry: “Curettes are used for the subgingival removal of dental…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcūrōWiktionary, French cureras cūrāre‘to heal, cure’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400curerWiktionary, French curer‘to clean’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentcurerWiktionary, English curette‘to clean out, scrape out’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentcuretteWiktionary, English curette
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2008curetteWiktionary, English curette. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2008, Cecilia Gorrel, Small Animal Dentistry: “Curettes are used for the subgingival removal of dental…”

Linked words

through Latin cūrō ‘to heal, cure’

accurate, proxy, procurement, incurable, procurator, curation, 4 more

Today it means

noun A hand-held surgical instrument, often with a scoop or hook at its tip, used for cleaning or debriding biological tissue.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “curette”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French curer. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin cūrō / curette

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