Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Bolus
/ˈboʊləs/noun
A soft rounded mass, especially of chewed food ready to be swallowed, or a single large dose of a drug given at once.
The Greek roots
βῶλος
bôlos
lump, clod of earth
Literally: “a clod”
Follow a root:βῶλος1 word
The story of the word
βῶλος was a clod of earth or a lump of anything. Apothecaries borrowed the Latin form for a pill too big to go down comfortably, physiologists gave it to the ball of food the tongue shoves back past the throat, and hospital pharmacy now uses it for a dose delivered in one push rather than by slow drip. Despite the resemblance it has nothing to do with embolus, which comes from a verb meaning to throw in.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
In a sentence
The nurse gave a bolus of saline before starting the infusion.
Chewing works the food into a bolus the tongue can move.