Word(s) of the day

My posting tempo has been slowing down. No good reason, but my apologies.

I have a new niece! The very first niece in my immediate family (there are already three nephews.)

And to celebrate, I have three nifty words concerning childbirth and newborn imps:

Meconium

2. Med. and Veterinary Med. The dark, greenish-brown sticky contents of the intestine of the mammalian fetus in the later stages of gestation, forming the first faeces of the newborn.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (ed. 6), Meconium,..the Ordure of a young Child, which sticks to the Entrails after the Birth, so call'd from its Colour, resembling that of Poppy-Juice. 1732 J. ARBUTHNOT Rules of Diet iv. 404 All of them [sc. newborn infants] have a Meconium, or sort of dark-colour'd Excrement in the Bowels. 1844 H. STEPHENS Bk. of Farm III. 913 It [sc. colostrum] has a different composition from milk, and acts as a purgative to the new-born calf,..removing the sticky sort of dung called the meconium, from its bowels. 1890 J. CAGNEY tr. R. von Jaksch Clin. Diagnosis vi. 165 The term ‘meconium’ is applied to the substance discharged from the rectum of the child immediately after birth. 1952 D. M. STUART Daughter of Eng. 328 The passage of meconium led to the suspicion that the child might be dead. 1968 New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 7 Mar. 530/2 Severe meconium staining was seen with the birth of the buttocks. 1989 J. A. B. COLLIER & J. M. LONGMORE Oxf. Handbk. Clin. Specialties (ed. 2) ii. 128 Meconium (passage of babies' bowel contents) is seen in 13% of labours of >38 weeks' gestation.

In other words, meconium is baby shit that is usually expelled during the stress of birth. I have heard too that mothers also occasionally shit during birth, they're trying to strain every darn muscle down there, so it kind of makes sense. The etymology is interesting as it's greek and is the same word as used for the poppy or for a particular variety of poppy, and then for the thickened juice extracted from the poppy. I can only imagine (but will try not to) that the thickened juice of the poppy is somehow similar to a baby's first shit. Think about that the next time you're shooting up heroin.

Vernix

or, in precise terminology, vernix caseosa

2. Med. In full, vernix caseosa [mod.L. casesus, f. L. caseus cheese]. A greasy deposit covering the skin of a baby at birth.
1846 DUNGLISON Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 6) 785/1 Vernix caseosa. 1882 W. T. LUSK Sci. & Art of Midwifery iii. 75 In the fifth month the surface of the fetal body is covered by the vernix caseosa, a whitish substance composed of..surface epithelium, down, and the products of the sebacious glands. 1956 Nature 18 Feb. 330/1 The specimens [of amniotic fluid] were centrifuged and the vernix and supernatant fluid removed. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Med. LXXI. 212 Copious vernix caseosa is often present. 1980 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Oct. 1138/1 With difficulty but determination she gave birth to an enormous child coated in so much vernix that it seemed to wear a cream cheese pack.

What's neat about this is trying to envision the exact texture of a material that is consistently referred to as cheese-like; I particularly like the phrase "cream cheese pack" in the usage example above. The word is straight from the medieval Latin for varnish.

And finally, and perhaps most perverse:

Lanugo

Fine soft hair or down, or a surface resembling this; spec. that covering the human foetus.
1677 Phil. Trans. XII. 904 The lanugo seen upon a Peach, Quince, or the like. 1766 Misc. Ess. in Ann. Reg. 192/1 A Monchinel-apple falling into the sea and lying in the water will contract a lanugo of salt-petre. 1871 DARWIN Desc. Man I. i. 25 The..so-called lanugo, with which the human foetus during the sixth month is thickly covered. 1876 DUHRING Dis. Skin 33 Very fine, soft hair, called lanugo, found upon the face, trunk, and other regions.
attrib. and Comb. 1891 W. A. JAMIESON Dis. Skin i. (ed. 3) 4 The small lanugo hairs seem as if dependents of the sebaceous glands. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 686 A tuft of delicate lanugo-like hairs.

It's interesting that the etymology of lanugo stems from "lana," the Latin word for wool and from which must derive the word lanolin. (Lanolin merges Lana-wool with olin, stemming from oleum, the Latin for oil and from whence comes oleo, and oleaginous)

So there we are. Three good reasons why giving birth is kind of disgusting, yet provides us with three very nifty words.