external jugular vein
1
4.3
- noun
- /ɪkˈstɜrnəl ˈdʒʌɡjələr veɪn/
- Specialized
:
vena yugular externa
- During the surgery, the team carefully monitored the external jugular vein to prevent excessive bleeding.
Examples
-
A small incision was made to access the external jugular vein for the procedure.
-
Two tiny punctures of the external jugular vein, right side.
-
The doctor explained that the external jugular vein is important for draining blood from the head and neck.
How Superficial
- Specialized
1
4.3
- Specialized
1
5.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
Each constituent directly contributes to the meaning: 'external' = outer, 'jugular' = a large neck vein, and 'vein' = blood vessel, so the phrase denotes the outer jugular blood vessel in the neck. This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase following standard medical/nominal modification patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the parts can infer the meaning.
Etymology
The name external jugular vein explains where the vein is: jugular comes from an old word for the 'throat' and external means 'outside', so it is the vein that runs along the outside of the neck and can often be seen or used for quick medical treatment.