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Glite Dictionary
ballottement

ballottement

9.9
A medical method where a doctor taps to feel a floating object inside the body, for example a baby
  • noun
  • /bəˈlɒtəˌmɑ̃/
  • Specialized
: balotamiento
  • When the midwife applied pressure to the belly, she felt a ballottement, indicating the baby was moving.

Examples

  • The eyes are left uncovered so that dangerous movement of the lamina papyracea can be detected as orbital ballottement by the surgeon or assistant (Stankewitz maneuver).

    Academic text (1994)

  • The doctor performed a ballottement test to assess the position of the fetus during the examination.

  • During the ultrasound, the technician demonstrated ballottement to show how the fetus reacted to external taps.

Surface Forms

ballottement singular
ballottements plural

Morphology

ballottement = ballotte + ment

The word is a direct borrowing (ballotte + -ment) and the root 'ballotte' is not a productive or recognizable English base, so learners cannot derive the clinical meaning from English components.

Etymology

Ballottement comes from the French verb balloter, which means 'to toss' and is related to the English word ball. So in medicine, ballottement is the quick tap that makes a floating object bounce back against the doctor's finger, like a small ball rebounding.