percussor

English

Noun

percussor (plural percussors)

1. (medicine) A small hammer-like tool that a physician uses to provide a light blow to a body part.
   • 1890, George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, Medical Record - Volume 38, page 66:

     The shaft on which the percussor is fastened is so adjusted that the spring, while expending its force, throws the hammer a little beyond the line of centre, so that the blow is struck lightly and quickly, and the hammer rebounds very much as it strikes and rebounds from the string of a piano when a note is struck on the keyboard.

   • 2009, James R. Sills, The Comprehensive Respiratory Therapist Exam Review, →ISBN:

     A mechanical percussor is ordered to assist with secretion clearnace in a patient receiving CPT.

   • 2014, Gary White, Equipment Theory for Respiratory Care, →ISBN, page 200:

     Kimberly-Clark manufactures and distributes a small, soft vinyl percussor mounted on a plastic wand designed for neonatal applications (Figure 4-39).

2. (medicine) A physician who provides light blow to a body part as a diagnostic technique.
   • 1898, The Clinical Journal - Volume 12, page 310:

     When he has reached this stage, the percussor is an expert, and his ability to produce deceptive effects is his best guarantee that he will not be himself deceived.

   • 1901, The Hahnemannian Monthly - Volume 36, page 213:

     A percussor must be in a mental attitude toward the examined subject that is twofold in character; he knows, or should know, beforehand that there will be certain phenomena of sound that he is sure to discover, and that there are certain other phenomena that it is possible to discover, and that await his intelligent elicitation.

   • 1996, David N. Herndon, Total Burn Care E-Book: Expert Consult, →ISBN, page 240:

     Percussion is done by cupping the hand so as to allow a cushion of air to come between the percussor's hand and the patient.

3. A hammerstone or similar tool used for smashing, or chipping.
   • 1978, Newsletter: 1978-84 - Issue 4, page 232:

     Bi-polar percussion involves the placement of the objective piece on an anvil stone and subsequently striking it with a percussor, as one would crack a nut.

   • 1985, Mark G. Plew, James C. Woods, Max G. Pavesic, Stone Tool Analysis: Essays in Honor of Don E. Crabtree, page 294:

     The striking-platform features and the kind of percussor used are critical variables in determining the bulbar characteristics on flakes; the variable that is most critical depends on the hardness of the percussor, the angle of the striking platform, the amount of force applied, and the relative mass of both core and percussor.

   • 1986, Carl Gary Yeager, Arrowheads & Stone Artifacts:

     The hammerstone or percussor is similar to the grinding stone in appearance, size, and material used.

   • 1988, John E. Clark, The Lithic Artifacts of La Libertad, Chiapas, Mexico:

     The percussor used with this chisel may have been of wood, or other relatively soft material, since the battering at the poll is slight.

   • 2013, Wm Jack Hranicky, Archaeological Concepts, Techniques, and Terminology for American Prehistoric Lithic Technology, →ISBN:

     The hardness or softness of the hammerstone controls the interval of contact between the percussor and the flint-like material, for the time of contact is proportionate to the yield and density of the percussor.

4. A part of a device that is intended to impart a striking action.
   • 1919, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office:

     In a charge torpedo, a spring-pressed percussor recessed at one end, a guide tube in which said percussor works, a plummet adapted to lie in said recess and be held therein by the guide tube, a trigger adapted to engage said percussor and hold the same against the action of its spring, a pull cord secured to said plummet for shifting said percussor in the guide tube against the action of its spring, into position to be engaged by said trigger, ...

   • 1961, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Volume 219:

     Where air drilling can be used, for example, the air percussor appears to be gaining acceptance.

   • 1986, Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute, Annual Report - Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute, page 170:

     The device used to perform HFCWO consisted of a percussor that was driven by a modified sine wave signal amplified by a standard audio amplifier. The percussor consisted of an electromagnetic vibration generator (LDS Dynamic Systems, Model 520) that was coupled by a steel piston to a 13-cm diameter, flexible rubber diaphragm.

Anagrams

• procuress

Latin

Etymology

From percutiō (“strike or pierce through; shoot”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /perˈkus.sor/, [pɛrˈkʊs̠ːɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /perˈkus.sor/, [perˈkusːor]

Noun

percussor m (genitive percussōris); third declension

1. A stabber, striker, shooter.
2. A murderer, assassin, bandit; executioner.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	percussor	percussōrēs
Genitive	percussōris	percussōrum
Dative	percussōrī	percussōribus
Accusative	percussōrem	percussōrēs
Ablative	percussōre	percussōribus
Vocative	percussor	percussōrēs

Synonyms

• (murderer): carnifex, homicīda, interfector, mactātor, sīcārius

Related terms

• percussibilis
• percussiō
• percussiōnālis
• percussūra
• percussus
• percutiō

Descendants

• Catalan: percussor
• Galician: percusor
• Italian: percussore
• Portuguese: percussor
• Spanish: percocero, percusor

References

• “percussor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “percussor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• percussor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin percussor.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pes.kuˈsoʁ/ [pes.kuˈsoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pes.kuˈsoʁ/ [pes.kuˈsoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /pes.kuˈsoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /peʃ.kuˈsoʁ/ [peʃ.kuˈsoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /pes.kuˈsoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨʃ.kuˈsoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨʃ.kuˈsoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨʃ.kuˈso.ɾi/

• Hyphenation: per‧cus‧sor

Noun

percussor m (plural percussores, feminine percussora, feminine plural percussoras)

1. hammer (part of a firearm)
2. anything or anyone who percusses

Adjective

percussor (feminine percussora, masculine plural percussores, feminine plural percussoras)

1. which or who percusses

Related terms

• percussão
• percutir

Further reading

• “percussor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024