Digestive system Archives – A Way with Words

You’ll Never Catch Anything Unless You Hold Your Mouth Right

Posted by Grant Barrett on March 6, 2021 · Add Comment

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Goose, Esophagus

Posted by Grant Barrett on October 21, 2019 · Add Comment

Rae from Baltimore, Maryland, works in a cardiac intervention lab where surgeons refer to the esophagus as the goose. Is that bit of medical slang limited to her workplace? This is part of a complete episode.
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Jejune and Jejunum

Posted by Grant Barrett on March 9, 2019 · Add Comment

Jejune, meaning insipid or superficial, comes from Latin jejunus, meaning empty. The same root gives us jejunum, the part of the small intestine that is usually empty when autopsied. The same idea of emptiness is reflected in the related French and Spanish words for the first meal of the day, dejeuner and desayuno — in [...]
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Antejentacular

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 9, 2019 · Add Comment

Antejentacular derives from Latin words that mean before breakfast. One might take, for example, an antejentacular walk before sitting down for the morning’s meal. Antejentacular comes from the Latin jejunus meaning fasting or barren. It’s related to the word jejune meaning empty or insipid, and jejunum, the part of the small intestine that anatomists discovered [...]
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The Idiom to Have Hair on Your Tongue

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 9, 2019 · Add Comment

Dennis in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, recalls that his Spanish-speaking mother used to speak frankly with him or rebuke him using the phrase “No tengo pelo en mi lengua,” meaning “I have no hair on my tongue.” The same idea appears in Italian, Welsh, Croatian, Serbian, and other languages. In French, the phrase that translates as “to [...]
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Betsubara, Your Dessert Stomach

Posted by Grant Barrett on May 12, 2018 · Add Comment

You know how you can feel full after a meal, but then dessert arrives and you suddenly find a little more room? The Japanese have a term for this: betsubara, which literally means other stomach. In English, people often call it their dessert stomach. This is part of a complete episode.
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