painful intestinal condition, 1706, from Latin ileus "severe colic," from Greek eileos "colic," from eilein "to turn, squeeze," from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve."
Entries linking to ileus
*wel- 3
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects.
It forms all or part of: archivolt; circumvolve; convoluted; convolution; devolve; elytra; evolution; evolve; Helicon; helicopter; helix; helminth; lorimer; ileus; involve; revolt; revolution; revolve; valve; vault (v.1) "jump or leap over;" vault (n.1) "arched roof or ceiling;" volte-face; voluble; volume; voluminous; volute; volvox; volvulus; vulva; wale; walk; wallet; wallow; waltz; well (v.) "to spring, rise, gush;" welter; whelk; willow.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lithuanian valtis "twine, net," vilnis "wave," apvalus "round;" Old Church Slavonic valiti "roll, welter," vlŭna "wave;" Greek eluein "to roll round, wind, enwrap," eilein "twist, turn, squeeze; revolve, rotate," helix "spiral object;" Latin volvere "to turn, twist;" Gothic walwjan "to roll;" Old English wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" Old High German walzan "to roll, waltz;" Old Irish fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel."
ileum n.
lowest part of the small intestine, 1680s, medical Latin, from ileum, in medieval medicine "the part of the small intestines in the region of the flank," singular created from Latin ilia (pl.) "groin, flank," in classical Latin, "belly, the abdomen below the ribs," poetically, "entrails, guts." The word apparently was confused in Latin with Greek eileos "colic" (see ileus), or perhaps is a borrowing of it. The sense is "winding, turning," either via the Greek meaning or from the convolutions of the intestines. Earlier in English ylioun (late 14c.), from Medieval Latin ileon. Related: Ileitis; ileal.