the.com/keyhole
a tiny window built for trust, daring you not to peek through it
means A small opening in a door or lock shaped to receive a key, through which the lock is operated — and through which a curious eye can spy.
from A plain English compound of "key" and "hole," the two oldest building blocks doing exactly what they say. "Key" comes from Old English "cǣg," a word for the device that opens a lock whose deeper roots are murky; "hole" from Old English "hol," a hollow or cavity. Joined together, they name the gap the key slips into — and English, ever practical, never bothered with anything fancier. The peeping sense ("keyhole view," "keyhole journalism") came later, once doors had locks worth spying through.
- surgery
- Keyhole surgery enters the body through holes under a centimeter
- shape origin
- The classic shape mirrors old warded lock mechanisms
- forbidden lore
- Bluebeard's wives died for peeking through one
- astronomy
- Asteroid orbits pass through gravitational keyholes near Earth
- vision trick
- Keyhole limpets breathe through a hole atop their shell
keyhole surgery — minimally invasive surgical technique using small incisions, developed in the 1980s
keyhole limpet hemocyanin — protein from megathura crenulata limpet, used as immune system carrier in vaccines