Cholecyst

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkoʊləˌsɪst/

Definitions

1. A hollow organ situated under the liver that is involved in bile storage and secretion
2. An anatomical reservoir that concentrates bile and releases it to assist in digestion processes
3. A sac-like structure located beneath the liver that serves to store and release bile for the purpose of digestion

Etymology: Bile was once thought to be one of the four humours that governed the body, and the Greeks gave the organ that stores it a name built from two of their own words: "kholē," meaning gall or bile, and "kystis," a bladder or sac. The gallbladder is literally a bile sac, and the compound is a plain descriptive coinage rather than a story about a particular person or event. The English term is a modern scientific formation. It joins the Greek roots directly, as anatomists did when they needed precise names for organs, so the Greek words themselves were not used for this organ in the way the English word now is. The word appears in medical writing as a technical term, and its meaning has stayed exactly where the anatomy placed it: the small pear-shaped sac beneath the liver that holds bile until the body needs it.