Fistule

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An abnormal channel that forms between two body cavities or between an organ and the skin, often as a result of infection or injury
2. A tube-shaped opening that develops abnormally between internal organs or from an organ to the surface of the body
3. A pathological passage connecting two hollow structures, which may cause leakage of fluid or discharge through the skin

Etymology: "Fistule" is simply an older spelling of "fistula", the term for an abnormal channel that forms between two body cavities, or between a cavity and the skin. The Latin "fistula" meant a pipe or reed, and it also came to describe a sore or ulcer, which is how the medical sense arose: a pipe-like passage through the body that behaves like an open wound. English took the word directly from Latin rather than through French, which makes it a learned borrowing. Its relative "fester" is a doublet, meaning the two words descend from the same Latin source but reached English by different routes. "Fester" came into English through the everyday speech of ordinary people, so it kept the sense of a sore that discharges pus, while "fistula" kept the scholarly, technical flavour of physicians' Latin.