Torunda

[aleCcowaN]

I didn't find torunda in many dictionaries, and a couple of on-line sources says that torunda means swab, but I'm not sure it is -or I'm sure it is not-.

A torunda is a piece of cotton with the shape of a ball or cigar, generally wrapped in gauze, almost allways sterile (so far, a swab), that is used to keep a wound open so blood, pus and other niceties are able to flow out without being dammed. Also used as a structural element in a bandage, used to deviate pressure that may affect a wound, and protect such wounds from blows and scrapes (in my case, an ulcer in my feet ).

In Spanish, a swab, typically a ball of cotton at the end of a stick, is called hisopo, and the swab -sample taken with a swab- is called hisopado. Not surprisingly, to take a sample with a swab or rub a swab soaked in some medicine is called hisopar.

But torunda is not part of that family.

[Rusty]

These are generally called 'cotton balls' in AmE. 'Cotton wadding' is another term we use.

[aleCcowaN]

Thank you, Rusty.

I found the term turunda, defined as a ...

surgical tent (delimitación del campo quirúrgico -I suppose-, also fenestrado)
gauze drain (mecha or drenaje de gasa)
or
tampon (tampón)

An improvised tampon or the element used to make a gauze drain are certainly torundas in Spanish.

[Awaken]

What you are describing sounds more medically specific than a cotton ball since it is also wrapped in gauze. I'm not sure what term we would use here. Usually if you have an open would, we would put a telfa pad or bandage with gauze in while it drains if it does not need to be stitched. Sorry I can't really help more.

[aleCcowaN]

It's OK. Maybe it's a feature of my country's language having specialized terms or technical jargon used in everyday life, surely in a non systematic way. Torunda is not a common popular word here but many use it in everyday life, even to describe just a cigar or ball shaped piece of soft material interposed between two things.

I think, locally, in popular language torunda is related to pituto, that is an unnamed or unknown piece, in a shape that resembles a bolt but clearly not being a bolt: "Hay que usar este pituto y ese pitutito para fijar el coso al socotroco", a marvellous balance between linguistic uncertainty and practical directions.

[poli]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

It's OK. Maybe it's a feature of my country's language having specialized terms or technical jargon used in everyday life, surely in a non systematic way. Torunda is not a common popular word here but many use it in everyday life, even to describe just a cigar or ball shaped piece of soft material interposed between two things.

I think, locally, in popular language torunda is related to pituto, that is an unnamed or unknown piece, in a shape that resembles a bolt but clearly not being a bolt: "Hay que usar este pituto y ese pituto para fijar el coso al socotroco", a marvellous balance between linguistic uncertainty and practical directions.

As for "hay que usar este pituto y ese pituto para fijar el coso al socotroco", the American English equivalent is: you have to use this doohickey and that doohickey to to fix the thing on the thigamajig.

It's interesting that you use hisopo. In Latin America Spanish I hear the word used is gisopo.
As I'm sure you know, many medical terms come directly form Latin, so
Spanish and English terms tend to be the same or nearly the same in many instances. This is not the case with the word torunda.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by poli

As for "hay que usar este pituto y ese pituto para fijar el coso al socotroco", the American English equivalent is: you have to use this doohickey and that doohickey to to fix the thing on the thigamajig.

Thank you for that. I only knew thingy and thingamajig.

Originally Posted by poli

It's interesting that you use hisopo. In Latin America Spanish I hear the word used is gisopo.

I've looked it up and found it to be guisopo. A further research in CREA gave me one sole Cuban case for guisopo, and 71 cases for hisopo, 34 from Spain and 37 from all America, which is good as CREA was made 50%-%50% (0 for gisopo and jisopo, btw). So I think this word guisopo is just from the Caribbean at most. New York Spanish sounded totally Caribbean to me 20 years ago -so, pretty atypical Latin American Spanish-. Now I suppose the Mexican, Central American and Colombian element has counterbalanced it a bit.

[poli]

You are right about the Mexican population which has grown, and has changed New York's Spanish-speaking culture.