visceral

adj

Etymology: From Middle French viscéral (modern French viscéral), or from its etymon Medieval Latin viscerālis (“internal”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Viscerālis is derived from Latin viscera (a plural form of vīscus (“internal organ of the body”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to rotate, turn”)) + -ālis (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). cognates * Old French visceral (Middle French viscéral, modern French viscéral) * Italian viscerale * Spanish visceral

1. Of or relating to, made up of, or positioned among or within, the viscera (“internal organs of the body, especially those contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities”).

   “visceral remains”

   “[W]hat sign / Of visceral lightness, coloured to a shade, / May charm the genial gods, and what fair spots / Commend the lung and liver.”

2. Of or relating to, made up of, or positioned among or within, the viscera (“internal organs of the body, especially those contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities”).
3. Of or relating to, made up of, or positioned among or within, the viscera (“internal organs of the body, especially those contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities”).

   “[…] Christ sends Paracletum, in a more entire, and a more internal, and more visceral sense, a Comforter.”

   “Love is of all other the inmoſt and moſt viſcerall affection. And therefore called by the Apoſtle, Bovvels of Love. And vve read of the yearning of Ioſephs bovvels over Benjamin his mothers ſonne, […]”

4. Having to do with the response of the body as opposed to the intellect, as in the distinction between feeling and thinking.

   “Our meditation of his [Jesus's] death should be more viſeral, and affect us more, becauſe it is of a thing already done.”

   “[T]he discretion of an aristocrat is in his head, a tactical detail, it has nothing to do with this visceral sinking, this ebb in the nerves.”

5. (Apparently) situated in the viscera or the interior of the body.

   “[T]here is none good but God; there is centrical, visceral, gremial gold, goodness in the root, in the tree of goodness, God.”