English
bowel
Bowel comes from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus ‘a small sausage’, and ultimately from botulus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbotulus‘sausage’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbotellus‘a small sausage’diminutive of botulus
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400boïel
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600bouel
- Englishearliest quotation 1526bowel
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbotulus‘sausage’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEbotellus‘a small sausage’diminutive of botulus
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400boïel
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600bouel
- Englishearliest quotation 1526bowel
Earliest quotation: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “And when he was hanged, brast asondre in the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʷet- ‘swelling’
quid, bequest, bitumen, bequeath, cud, quoth, 13 more
through Latin botulus ‘sausage’
through Latin botellus ‘a small sausage’
Today it means
noun A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin botulus / bowel