meconium
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin mēcōnium (“opium; excrement of a newborn child”), from Ancient Greek μηκώνιον (mēkṓnion, “poppy-juice, opium”), from μήκων (mḗkōn, “poppy”).
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -əʊniəm
Noun edit
meconium (countable and uncountable, plural meconiums)
- (medicine) A dark green mass, the contents of the fetal intestines during the later stages of mammalian gestation, that forms the first feces of the newborn.
- 1915, John Lovett Morse, Fritz Bradley Talbot, Diseases of Nutrition and Infant Feeding, New York: MacMillan, page 78:
- The meconium is dark brownish-green in color. The first meconium passed is semi-solid, having been partially dried out in the large intestine.
- (obsolete) Opium.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:opium
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
contents of the fetal intestines
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