Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
eyestone

eyestone

9.9
A small stone people use in traditional medicine to remove dust or grit from the eye
  • noun
  • Archaic
: piedra ocular
  • The old healer carefully placed an eyestone on the boy's eyelid to ease his discomfort.

Examples

  • Can an eyestone really help with eye issues?

  • Some museums display an eyestone as part of their collection of historical medical tools.

  • In traditional medicine, an eyestone was believed to help remove dust from the eye.

  • Many people believed that an eyestone could remove debris from the eye.

  • In folk medicine, people believed that using an eyestone could help remove foreign objects from the eye.

  • The ancient healer recommended placing an eyestone on the eyelid to soothe irritation.

  • Once considered a remedy, the eyestone was used to treat eye injuries in rural communities.

Surface Forms

eyestone singular
eyestones plural

Morphology

eyestone = eye + stone (opaque) = eye + stone

The term 'eyestone' refers to a specific historical use in folk medicine, which is not immediately clear from the components 'eye' and 'stone'.

Etymology

Eyestone is simply the combination of eye and stone. Healers once used a small eyestone to touch or lift dust from the 'eye', so the word means a small stone used in folk medicine to remove foreign objects from the eye.