bowel

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French bouel, from Old French boïel, from Latin botellus, diminutive of botulus (“sausage”). Doublet of boyau.

noun

1. (chiefly medicine) A part or division of the intestines, usually the large intestine.
2. (in the plural) The entrails or intestines; the internal organs of the stomach.
3. (in the plural, figurative) The (deep) interior of something.
   The treasures were stored in the bowels of the ship.
4. (in the plural, archaic) The seat of pity or the gentler emotions; pity or mercy.
   Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels. 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey
5. (obsolete, in the plural) offspring

verb

1. (now rare) To disembowel.
   Their bodies are first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry …. 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 149