115. Borborygmi, noun (plural form of borborygmus). From Greek borborygmos, a deliberately onomatopoeic coinage for “a rumbling in the stomach.” The medical term for those distinct, hollow, liquid, bubbling, gurgling sounds that emanate embarrassingly from the belly after a good meal. Borborygmi are caused by the peristaltic movements of the intestinal muscles as they move gas, fluid, and food around during digestion.
Sometimes a word has no deep significance, no lessons to impart. Sometimes a word is just so fantastic that it seems a crime not everyone knows it and can thereby be moved to mutter it, like a prayer, at every meal. Borborygmi is brought to you tonight, friends, by a giant bowl of the most delicious, tender, salty-tangy pork and chicken adobo this resonant chamber has known since her childhood. And so, enjoy.
