‘In fimo’ is a new term for research into stool and gut bacteria. It was proposed by American scientists because until now there was no terminology that would allow us to talk about the contents of human or animal intestines in a precise and scientific way, without using badly associated words.
Research into the effects of gut bacteria on human health has expanded tremendously in recent years, and has grown in importance enormously. An inadequate gut microbiome has been shown to promote obesity, eating disorders, gut disease, and possibly even autism. However, there is a lack of terminology that would allow us to talk about the contents of human or animal intestines in a precise and scientific manner, without the use of ugly words.
By analogy with the recognized terms “in vitro” (in a test tube) or “in vivo” (in a living organism), scientists from the UNC School of Medicine and Notre Dame University propose to use the Latin-inspired term “in fimo”, which would refer to experimental research regarding excrement.
Gastroenterologist Dr. Aadra from UNC-Chapel Hill in collaboration with the classical philologist, prof. Luca Grillo of the University of Notre Dame took into account the four Latin words for impurities laetamen, merda, stercus and fimum.
Laetamen turned out to have common ancestry with “laetus” (fertile, rich, happy), but was not chosen because it was associated with animal husbandry. Merda has an easy-to-guess obscene meaning (the so-called Cambronne’s word), which, in addition to French, is also found in Spanish and Italian. In addition, it is etymologically associated with a bad smell. Stercus shares a common root with the scatology of obscene literature. Therefore, fimum was chosen, less often used by the ancients, basically only for useful fertilization with manure. Besides, Virgil, Livius and Tacitus used the word fimum, never stercus. Hence the term “in fimo” was chosen.
The trade journal devoted to gastrointestinal diseases – “Gastroenterology” informed about the introduction of the new term.