the.com/rectum
the body's final checkpoint, deciding what goes and exactly when
means The final straight section of the large intestine, ending at the anus, where waste is stored before it leaves the body.
from Straight from Latin, where it's the leftover of the phrase intestinum rectum — literally "the straight intestine." Rectum is the neuter form of rectus, "straight, upright" (also the root of words like correct, erect, and rectify). The irony is rich: ancient anatomists named this curving, S-bent passage "the straight one" because in certain animals they dissected it ran comparatively straight — and the tidy Latin label stuck, even though in humans it's anything but.
- name origin
- Latin for straight, though it actually curves
- smart muscles
- it can tell solid from gas blind
- holding cell
- normally empty, fills only before exit
- drug route
- medicines absorb here, bypassing the liver
ampulla of rectum — the dilated terminal portion of the rectum in human anatomy, a standard anatomical landmark
rectum cancer — colorectal cancer affecting the rectum, the 3rd most common cancer worldwide with ~700,000 cases annually