Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Stomach
/ˈstʌmək/noun
The sac between the gullet and the intestine where food is broken down.
The Greek roots
στόμα
stóma
mouth
Literally: “the gut's mouth”
Follow a root:στόμα4 words
The story of the word
στόμαχος first meant the throat, then the opening of the belly, and only afterwards the organ itself; the anatomy moved down the body while the word stayed put. English inherited a second sense from the medieval doctrine of temperament, in which the stomach seated courage and appetite, which is why Elizabeth I could speak of having the stomach of a king and why we still have no stomach for a fight. The Greek root is visible in the little mouths of a leaf, the stomata that let a plant breathe.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
stomastomatitisgastrostomycolostomy
In a sentence
Coffee on an empty stomach and he is useless until noon.