Duodenum

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌdjuːə(ʊ)ˈdiːnəm/

Definitions

1. The upper portion of the small intestine that follows the stomach and is essential for digestion and nutrient absorption from chyme
2. A key segment of the digestive pathway where bile and pancreatic enzymes contribute to the breakdown of food after it leaves the stomach
3. A section of the small intestine located between the stomach and the jejunum that plays a crucial role in the digestion and absorption of nutrients from partially digested food

Etymology: The name of this part of the gut is a measurement. Its Medieval Latin form, "duodenum digitorum," meant "space of twelve fingers," a reference to its length of roughly twelve finger-breadths. The phrase combines "duodeni," meaning "twelve each," with "digitorum," the genitive plural of "digitus," which denoted a finger or toe, and the Latin "digit" carried the same sense of finger-width that gives us the modern digit. Anatomists borrowed the measure as a convenient label for the first segment of the small intestine, which lies just past the stomach. The shortened Latin noun "duodenum" was then taken directly into English, so the term is a plain anatomical description rather than a metaphor. Its meaning stayed fixed to that stretch of bowel, and the name has survived unchanged in medical vocabulary, even though a finger-width is a rather loose unit of length for an organ.