Kirurgilisi

Kirurgilisi is an Estonian grammatical form that functions as the partitive plural of the adjective kirurgical (kirurgiline), meaning surgical. It is used to describe plural nouns in the partitive case, indicating that the noun is in part or some portion rather than a definite set. In practice, kirugilisi appears most often in phrases such as kirurgilisi operatsioone or kirurgilisi sekkumisi, meaning “surgical operations” or “surgical interventions.” The corresponding nominative plural is kirurgicalid (more commonly written as kirurgiäilised operatsioonid). The adverbial form is kirurgiliselt, meaning “surgically.”

Etymology and related terms: Kirurgiline stems from kirurgia, the Estonian word for surgery, itself borrowed from French chirurgie and Latin chirurgia, which in turn comes from Greek kheirourgia meaning “hand-work.” The base noun kirurgia gives rise to related terms such as kirurgia (surgery), kirurg (surgeon), and kirurgiline (surgical). The gender- and case–based inflection of adjectives in Estonian means kirurgilisi will appear whenever a plural noun in the partitive case is described as surgical.

Usage notes: Kirurgilisi is primarily a descriptive, technical term found in medical, academic, and clinical texts. It contrasts with kir,urgilised (nominative plural) when the noun is definite or the sentence structure requires the nominative. Distinctions between surgical and non-surgical contexts are often clear from surrounding words such as operatsioonid (operations) or protseduurid (procedures).

See also: kirurgia, kirurg, kirurgiline, kirurgiliselt.