The building blocks of English

Affixes

-tome

An instrument for cutting; a section or segment.

The first sense is from Greek ‑tomon, that cuts; the second is from Greek tomē, a cutting, both from temnein, to cut.

The most common terms in the first sense are microtome (Greek mikros, small), an instrument for cutting extremely thin sections of material for examination under a microscope, and osteotome (Greek osteon, bone), a surgical instrument for cutting bone, typically resembling a chisel. Others exist in surgery, usually closely related to terms for a procedure that ends in ‑tomy or ‑ectomy, but they are relatively rare.

Terms in the second sense include three for sections of embryos that give rise to particular parts of the body: dermatome (Greek derma, skin), the part that develops into the connective tissue of the skin; myotome (Greek mus, mu‑, muscle), into the skeletal musculature; sclerotome (Greek sklēros, hard), into bone or other skeletal tissue.

Epitome, a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or type, or a summary of a written work, derives from Greek epitemnein, to make an incision into, hence abridge.

Terms such as cyclostome and protostome contain the ending ‑stome instead.