I think it's always fun to learn the origin of a word, so now I'm going to tell you where the hilarious word sphincter comes from. For those of you who don't know, a sphincter is a ring of muscle which expands or contracts depending on its biological need. There are lots of different sphincters in the body but the most commonly associated with is that of the digestive system.
To understand the origin of this word your going to need a bit of a background knowledge on the sphinx, a mythical creature and ruddy great statue in Egypt. The sphinx has the head of a human and body of a lion. Mythology tells us that the sphinx would ask its victims a riddle. If a correct answer was given then the victim would carry on to live another day. However, if the victim answered incorrectly then the sphinx would choke them with their paws until they died. It is this strangling and contracting method which is also seen in the sphincter we associate with our toilet habits, which is how sphinx became sphincter.
Know any other words that have fun origins behind them? Then comment below or email newsinscience@gmail.com to turn it into another blog post.
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