navel

• navil (obsolete)

From Middle English navel, navele, from Old English nafola, from Proto-West Germanic *nabulō, from Proto-Germanic *nabalô (compare West Frisian nâle, Dutch navel, German Nabel), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nóbʰōl (compare Old Irish imbliu, Latin umbilīcus, Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós), Persian ناف (nâf), Sanskrit नाभि (nābhi)), diminutive of *h₃nobʰ-, equivalent to nave +‎ -el (diminutive suffix)). Doublet of omphalos. More at nave.

• enPR: nā'vəl, IPA^(key): /ˈneɪvəl/
• (Southern US, obsolete) enPR: nā'bəl, IPA^(key): /ˈneɪbəl/^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvəl
• Homophone: naval

navel (plural navels)

1. (anatomy) The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of placental mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
2. The central part or point of anything; the middle.
   • 1637, John Milton, A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:

     Within the navel of this hideous wood,
     Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,
     Of Bacchus and Circe born, great Comus

   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

     Sweeter than the muſk of Tatar, the morning breeze from the navel of every flower raviſhed perfume.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:

     We sat alfresco on the edge of a “square,” in reality a pond of cobbly mud with a plinth plonked in its navel […]

3. A navel orange.
   • 1981, Peter K. Thor, Edward V. Jesse, Economic Effects of Terminating Federal Marketing Orders for California-Arizona Oranges:

     This contributed to a rapid rise in planted acreage in northern California, especially in navels, which are more suited to growing conditions there.

4. (historical) An eye on the underside of a carronade for securing it to a carriage.

• bellybutton/belly button, nave (obsolete), umbilicus, see also Thesaurus:navel

• innie
• outie

navel (third-person singular simple present navels, present participle naveling or navelling, simple past and past participle naveled or navelled)

1. (literary and poetic) To be in the middle of a landscape.
   • 1818, Lord Byron, “Canto IV”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CLXXIII, page 89:

     Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills / So far, that the uprooting wind which tears / The oak from his foundation, and which spills / The ocean o’er its boundary, and bears / Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares / The oval mirror of thy glassy lake; […]

   • 1819, J[eremiah] H[olmes] Wiffen, “Aspley Wood”, in Aonian Hours; and Other Poems, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, canto II, stanza LXII, page 102:

     Within the shade a ruined temple stands / To sight conspicuous, navelled in the pines, / Speaking of Grecian art, since Vandal hands / Defaced her structures, and despoiled her shrines.

   • 1835 August, Ollapod [pseudonym], “Ollapodiana. Number Four.”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume VI, number 2, New York, N.Y.: [Lewis Gaylord] Clark and [Clement] Edson, […], page 122:

     I rejoice as I call back those pleasant times, when in the casement of our seminary, I rested my telescope on my shut-up Virgil, and looked off among the far-off hills in the lap of which the edifice was naveled, and saw the pretty girls of the farm-houses, […]

   • 1965, C[ecil] Day Lewis, “Madrigal for Lowell House”, in The Room & Other Poems, London: Jonathan Cape, page 53:

     The crimson berry tree navelled upon this court / Twinkles a coded message, a wind-sun tingling chord, / Curious round her foot saunters one blue jay: […]

• Alven, Levan, elvan, levan, venal

From Middle Dutch navele, navel, from Old Dutch *navalo, from Proto-Germanic *nabalô.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnaː.vəl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: na‧vel
• Rhymes: -aːvəl

navel m (plural navels, diminutive naveltje n)

1. navel

• navelpiercing
• navelstreng
• naveltrui

• Afrikaans: nawel, nauel

• navele, navill, navyll, navle, naule, nawle, novel, novle, novele, nowle

From Old English nafola, from Proto-West Germanic *nabulō, from Proto-Germanic *nabulô; compare nave.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnaːvəl(ə)/

navel (plural naveles)

1. navel (of a human or animal)
2. centre, point, hub

• English: navel
• Scots: nyvel

• “nāvel(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse nafli.

navel c

1. (anatomy) navel, belly button
2. (figuratively) a navel (hub)

• navelsträng (“umbilical cord”)

• navel in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• navel in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• navel in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Svensk MeSH

• alven, elvan, laven, valen