the.com/belly button
Proof you were once attached to someone, forever worn as a scar you decorate.
means The small scar-like indentation in the middle of the abdomen, left behind after the umbilical cord was cut and healed over.
from Straightforward compound: 'belly,' from Old English 'belg' meaning bag or pouch (which is also why bellows and a storm's 'bulging' sails share that root), plus 'button,' from Old French 'boton,' something that pushes out or protrudes — a bud, a knob. Put together, the phrase is a plainspoken, almost nursery-room coinage: the little knob on the bag of you. It's attested as everyday English by the 1800s, favored for being friendlier than the clinical 'navel,' which comes straight from Old English 'nafela,' a cousin of 'nave' (the hub of a wheel) — because, anatomically, that's exactly what it is.
- official name
- umbilicus, if you want to sound medical
- innie or outie
- determined by scar tissue, not destiny
- bacteria count
- hosts up to 67 species of bacteria
- fun fact
- navel lint always drifts upward from underwear