navel

Meaning

Noun

• The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
• The central part or point of anything; the middle.
• A navel orange.
• An eye on the underside of a carronade for securing it to a carriage.

Origin

• From Middle English navel, navele, from Old English nafola, from Proto-West Germanic *nabulō, from Proto-Germanic *nabalô (compare West Frisian nâle, Dutch navel, German Nabel), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nóbʰōl (compare Old Irish imbliu, Latin umbilicus, Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός), diminutive of *h₃nobʰ-, equivalent to nave + -el). omphalos. More at nave.