bowel

[bou-uh l, boul] /ˈbaʊ əl, baʊl/
noun
1.
Anatomy.
  1. Usually, bowels. the intestine.
  2. a part of the intestine.
2.
bowels.
  1. the inward or interior parts:
    the bowels of the earth.
  2. Archaic. feelings of pity or compassion.
verb (used with object), boweled, boweling or (especially British) bowelled, bowelling.
3.
to disembowel.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English b(o)uel < Old French < Latin botellus little sausage (bot(ulus) sausage + -ellus -elle)
Related forms
bowelless, adjective
Examples from the web for bowel
  • The section of intestine that has died is removed, and the healthy remaining ends of bowel reconnected.
  • Homeopaths have been aware of the effect of the bowel flora on the health for almost a hundred years.
  • Other studies have found that olive oil has a favorable effect on both ovarian cancer and bowel cancer.
  • But only a few years earlier he was in the throes of an inflammatory bowel disease known as ulcerative colitis.
  • Here it is noteworthy that also in reviewing vibration experiments no mention was made of bowel spasms or uncontrolled defecation.
  • The goal is to prevent constipation and encourage good bowel habits.
  • His bowel movements were filling the room knee high.
  • Is lab work normal and is there any changed in urine or bowel habits.
  • Cowboys with knives vie for a new record in the cobra rope simulated bowel surgery.
  • They don't want to hear about your irritable bowel syndrome.
British Dictionary definitions for bowel

bowel

/ˈbaʊəl/
noun
1.
an intestine, esp the large intestine in man
2.
(pl) innards; entrails
3.
(pl) the deep or innermost part (esp in the phrase the bowels of the earth)
4.
(pl) (archaic) the emotions, esp of pity or sympathy
Word Origin
C13: from Old French bouel, from Latin botellus a little sausage, from botulus sausage
Word Origin and History for bowel
n.

c.1300, from Old French boele "intestines, bowels, innards" (12c., Modern French boyau), from Medieval Latin botellus "small intestine," originally "sausage," diminutive of botulus "sausage," a word borrowed from Oscan-Umbrian, from PIE *gwet-/*geut- "intestine" (cf. Latin guttur "throat," Old English cwið, Gothic qiþus "belly, womb," German kutteln "guts, chitterlings").

Greek splankhnon (from the same PIE root as spleen) was a word for the principal internal organs, which also were felt in ancient times to be the seat of various emotions. Greek poets, from Aeschylus down, regarded the bowels as the seat of the more violent passions such as anger and love, but by the Hebrews they were seen as the seat of tender affections, especially kindness, benevolence, and compassion. Splankhnon was used in Septuagint to translate a Hebrew word, and from thence early Bibles in English rendered it in its literal sense as bowels, which thus acquired in English a secondary meaning of "pity, compassion" (late 14c.). But in later editions the word often was translated as heart. Bowel movement is attested by 1874.

bowel in Medicine

bowel bow·el (bou'əl, boul)
n.
The intestine.

bowel in Science
bowel
  (bou'əl)   
The intestine.