Bowel Comes From the Latin for Little Sausage
The bowel is the intestine. The Latin root means a small sausage, and the same word gives medicine the name botulism.
The bowel is the intestine, usually referred to in the plural. Latin *botellus* meant a small sausage, and the resemblance was obvious enough to name the organ. The same word produced *botulism*, because the illness was first identified in Germany in contaminated sausages — *Botulus* is Latin for sausage, and the bacterium was named after it. One food word, two very different medical terms.
- The intestine. *Bowel obstruction.*
- Bowels — the plural, usual in speech. *Loose bowels.*
- The depths of something. *The bowels of the ship.*
- Bowel movement — defecation. *A regular bowel movement.*
- Botulism — from the same root. *A case of botulism.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bowel | The large bowel. |
| Plural | bowels | The bowels. |
| Latin | botellus | A small sausage. |
| Related | botulism | Foodborne botulism. |
| Related | intestine | The small intestine. |
- Bowel cancer screening starts at fifty in many countries.Medicine.
- Deep in the bowels of the building.Figurative.
- Botulism was first traced to sausages.Etymology.
Bowel or intestine?
- Bowel — the everyday and clinical word in Britain
- Intestine — the anatomical term, small and large
- Colon — the large bowel specifically
- Gut — informal, and increasingly used for the whole system
- Bowel cancer and colorectal cancer name the same disease
Old French *boel*, from Latin *botellus*, a small sausage, a diminutive of *botulus*. English has used it since the 1200s.
Are bowel and botulism related?
Yes. Both come from the Latin for sausage. Botulism was named because early cases came from contaminated sausage.
Is bowel the same as intestine?
Effectively yes. Bowel is the common term, intestine the anatomical one.