Sacculated

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Divided into or characterized by small pouch-like compartments or sacs
2. Characterized by the presence of small, pouch-like divisions or sections that function independently
3. Having a structure divided into or bearing numerous small pouch-shaped parts

Etymology: Catullus, inviting a friend to dinner, warned him to bring the food, the wine and the girl himself, because "tui Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum": your Catullus's little purse is full of cobwebs. That "sacculus", a small bag for coins, is the ancestor of a word now used mostly by anatomists. The family is older than Rome. Latin "saccus" came from Greek "sakkos", a coarse cloth or bag, which in turn came from a Semitic source such as Hebrew "saq", sackcloth woven from goat hair. Few words have travelled so far. Its spread across Europe probably owes something to the Bible, where the word names the grain sacks of Joseph's brothers in Genesis. English took it in very early: Old English already had "sacc". Latin made diminutives from it. "Sacculus" meant a little bag or purse. A sibling, "saccellus", passed through French to become English "satchel". In the nineteenth century English borrowed "sacculus" as "saccule", meaning simply a small sac. In anatomy the word also names one of the two small fluid-filled chambers of the inner ear's balance organ. "Sacculated" is a modern coinage from those old roots, and it says "having" twice. The Latin-derived "-ate" already meant "provided with", as in "sacculate", and English then added its own "-ed" on top. Doctors use it for organs that bulge into a row of small sacs. The large intestine is the classic case: its wall puckers into pouches called haustra. They also speak of a sacculated aneurysm or bladder. In plain English, it is a purse with many pockets.

Synonyms: pouched, sac-like

Antonyms: flat, smooth