Description

Why is a grommet called a grommet?, you idly ask your registrar (with double fellowship), as yet another ventilation tube catapults out of your crocodile forceps and hits the floor, rather than piercing the pars tensa.

Probably named after a famous surgeon, is the hopeful reply, perhaps in the first half of the twentieth century, maybe German?. Sir Archibald Grommet sounds convincing but noone in theatre has heard of him. Intrigued, a little search later into famous names gives a clue. Plarrs Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England reveals a Thomas Groom (1810 – 1895). Did he invent a Groom-ette? The Medical Directory, 1996, lists doctors called Grumett and Grummitt, but none have otological ancestors. A dictionary of British Surnames provides a glory of Grimmet, Grimmitt, Grummett, Grummit and Grummitt, but regretfully no Grommet. The Grimmets and Grummits are a diminutive of the surname Grim, itself a short form of the name Grimbald, meaning helemtbold. Rule Britannica?