bowel

views updated May 18 2018

bowel This term is more colloquial than strictly anatomical; it may refer to the whole of the gut or intestines, or to any part of them; thus ‘inflammation of the bowel’, or ‘cancer of the bowel’ might be anywhere from the small intestine to the rectum; ‘small bowel’ and ‘large bowel’ may specify which part. An ‘irritable bowel’ covers a host of symptoms and an uncertain location, although usually the colon. Bowel movement or bowels, plural, (opening of, regularity of, ‘any trouble with?’) euphemizes defecation. The association of intestines with profound and concealed rumblings has presumably led to usages like ‘the bowels of the earth’ whereas ‘gut-feeling’ perpetuates a historical emotional link: compare ‘bowels of compassion’ or Cromwell's plea ‘in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken’. The derivation of the word is from the Latin for sausage.

Stuart Judge


See alimentary system; defecation; toilet practices.

bowel

views updated May 17 2018

bow·el / ˈbou(ə)l/ (also bow·els) • n. the part of the alimentary canal below the stomach; the intestine. ∎  (the bowels of ——) the parts deep inside something large: the train picks up speed for its final plunge into the subterranean bowels of Manhattan.

bowel

views updated May 29 2018

bowel intestine, gut. XIII. ME. b(o)uel — OF. b(o)uel, boiel (mod. boyau) :- L. botellus pudding, sausage, small intetine, dim. of botulus sausage.

bowel

views updated May 21 2018

bowel (bow-ĕl) n. see intestine.