viscus

English

Etymology

From Latin viscus (“any internal organ of the body”), perhaps akin to viscid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪskəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: viscous
• Rhymes: -ɪskəs

Noun

viscus (plural viscera)

1. (anatomy) One of the organs, as the brain, heart, or stomach, in the great cavities of the body of an animal; especially used in the plural, and applied to the organs contained in the abdomen.
2. (anatomy, specifically) The intestines.

Synonyms

• entrails
• innards
• intestines
• offal

Derived terms

• eviscerate
• visceral

Translations

organ in the abdomen

• Catalan: víscera f
• Galician: víscera (gl) f
• Ido: vicero (io)
• Portuguese: víscera (pt) f
• Spanish: víscera (es) f
• Swedish: inälva (sv)

the intestines

• Hungarian: zsiger (hu)

See also

• viscus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• viscous

References

• “viscus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “viscus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “viscus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Latin

Etymology

Of unclear origin; possibly Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to turn, rotate”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯iːs.kus/, [ˈu̯iːs̠kʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvis.kus/, [ˈviskus]
• The long ī in the first syllable (given by Georges (1913/1918) and De Vaan (2008), but not by Gaffiot (1934)) is supported per Ernout and Meillet by the use of i longa in inscriptions.

Noun

vīscus n (genitive vīsceris); third declension (chiefly plural)

1. organ (any internal organ of the body)
2. (anatomy) entrails, viscera, bowels, internal organs

   Synonyms: intestīnum, interāneum, exta, prōsicium, prōsecta, hīllae

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.180–182:

     terra fabās tantum dūraque farra dabat.
     quae duo mixta simul sextīs quīcumque Kalendīs
     ēderit, huic laedī vīscera posse negant.

     The land yielded only beans and hard far. Whoever, on the Kalends of the sixth [months], eats these two [foods] mixed together, they say no harm will [come] to this [person’s] bowels.
     (The first day of June was the Kalendae fabariae or Bean-Kalends.)

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	vīscus	vīscera
Genitive	vīsceris	vīscerum
Dative	vīscerī	vīsceribus
Accusative	vīscus	vīscera
Ablative	vīscere	vīsceribus
Vocative	vīscus	vīscera

Derived terms

• ēvīscerō
• vīscerālis
• vīscerātim
• vīscerātiō f
• vīscereus

Related terms

• vīscum

Descendants

• → English: viscus, viscera
• → Middle French: vixere m, vixeres m pl
  • French: viscère m
    • →? Romanian: viscere n pl
• →? Italian: viscere m
• → Portuguese: víscera f
• → Spanish: víscera f

Further reading

• “viscus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “viscus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• 1. vīscus in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung
• viscus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN