Flatuses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The discharge of gas from the intestines, sometimes audible, occurs when air leaves the body through the rectal passage
2. The release of intestinal gas from the digestive tract through the rectum
3. Gas expelled from the lower digestive system causing a passing of air by the anus

Etymology: The plural "flatuses" is the regular English plural of "flatus," a noun that came into English in the 1660s and 1670s as a learned borrowing from Latin "flatus," meaning "blowing," "wind," or, in the more earthy sense, "fart." Its Latin root is the verb "flare," "to blow," which is also the source of "inflate" and "deflate." English took the word straight from Latin scholarship rather than through everyday speech, which is why it sounds clinical to modern ears. The plural "flatuses" follows the usual English pattern for nouns ending in "-us" from Latin, adding "-es" in the ordinary way. The form is used mainly in medical and anatomical writing, where doctors and writers need to refer to more than one instance of intestinal gas without resorting to the blunter everyday word.