Embowel
/ɪmˈbaʊəl/noun
To remove the internal organs of a body, especially after death.
Did you know?Embowel is a later spelling variant of inbowel/imbowel, built from the prefix in- and bowels, so the word’s history is painfully literal rather than mystical.
Etymological Timeline
Old English
OE
in-būgan
“to bend inward; to enclose”
Middle English
ME
imbowelen
“to put inside the bowels; to enclose”
14th Century
English
embowelen
“to eviscerate; to place or enclose within”
16th Century
English
embowel
“to remove the entrails of”
Modern English
English
embowel
“to disembowel or eviscerate”