Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Peritoneum
/ˌpɛrɪtəˈniːəm/noun
The membrane lining the abdominal cavity and covering the organs inside it.
The Greek roots
περί
perí
around
τείνειν
teínein
to stretch
Literally: “stretched around”
The story of the word
περιτόναιον is a participle turned into a noun: the thing stretched around. The membrane does exactly that, lining the abdominal wall and folding back over the gut, and its enormous surface is why an infection there turns dangerous so fast and why it can be used for dialysis. τείνειν also stretches through tendon, tetanus and the hypotenuse, the side that stretches under the right angle.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
tendontetanushypotenuseperimeter
In a sentence
The surgeon closed the peritoneum before anything else.
Dialysis can be done through the peritoneum at home instead of at a clinic.