Omphalic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the navel or umbilicus, or pertaining to the central part of something
2. Describing aspects connected to the belly button or the geometric center of an object
3. Characterizing features associated with the navel or the focal point of an area

Etymology: "Omphalic" comes from the Greek "omphalos", meaning "navel", and in ancient Greek the word had a surprisingly grand second life. The stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi was called the omphalos, and it was believed to mark the centre of the world. Greek writers described it as the navel of the earth, a physical marker of where the world began, so a bodily word became a term for the exact middle of the cosmos. English borrowed the adjective through the scientific Latin "omphalicus", and it appears in medical and anatomical writing to describe things relating to the navel itself. Because English took it from Greek and Latin rather than inheriting it through everyday speech, the word stayed firmly in technical vocabulary and never became a common term for the body.

Synonyms: navel-related, umbilical, central, focal, core