In 7 also chymus. [ad. L. chȳmus:—Gr. χῡμός juice (of plants, animals, etc.), f. stem χυ- (χευ-, χε-) to pour, shed, fuse, etc. The two forms χῡλός and χῡμός were practically identical in sense; some writers preferring one, and some the other; they were differentiated by Galen, and in Orion Etym. (c. 450), χυμός is explained as ‘juice in its raw or natural state,’ χυλός ‘juice produced by decoction or digestion’ (Liddell & Sc.); this appears to be the foundation of the modern distinction of chyle and chyme.]
The semifluid pulpy acid matter into which food is converted in the stomach by the action of the gastric secretion. From the stomach it passes into the small intestine, and by the action on it of the bile, the pancreatic juice, etc., becomes fitted for absorption as chyle.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, 59. It hath his essence from the chymus or juice of our aliment.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Voc., Chyme, Is the juyce of the meat further digested.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Chyle, A thick, whitish, partly fluid mass, called Chyme.
1852. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., II. xxiv. 500. The sensation of hunger ceases long before digestion takes place, or the chyme is converted into chyle.
1878. Foster, Phys., II. i. § 4. 240. These two alkaline fluids tend to neutralize the acidity of the chyme.
2. ‘The sap of plants’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
3. Comb., as chyme-mass, ‘the central semi-fluid sarcode in the interior of Infusoria’ (ibid.).
