Midguts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The central segment of the digestive tract, often comprising the small intestine and a part of the large intestine
2. A section of the gastrointestinal system that includes the intestines where digestion and absorption of nutrients occur
3. Referring to the anatomical region/portion of the digestive system situated between the foregut and hindgut, involved in processing food

Etymology: "Midguts" is the plural of "midgut", a noun for the middle section of the digestive tract, the stretch running between the foregut and the hindgut. Its plural form marks the fact that many animals, insects in particular, have a midgut region that the anatomy refers to in the plural, though the word itself is simply the regular plural of its singular. The singular is a plain compound: "mid-" and "gut". The first part descends from Old English "midd", meaning "middle", which traces back through Proto-Germanic "midjaz" to a much older Indo-European root meaning roughly "middle" or "between". "Gut" comes from Old English "guttas", the plural of "gutt", meaning an intestine or entrails, so the English word for the bowel has been present since the earliest recorded stages of the language. The combination is transparent: the word names the part of the gut that lies in the middle. Its meaning is literal and descriptive rather than figurative, which is why it has changed little since it was formed.

Synonyms: intestines, small intestines