I.the belly, the paunch, the bowels.
I. Lit.: “purgatio alvi,” Cic. N. D. 3, 22: “forsitan purgat alvum,” Vulg. Jud. 3, 24; 3, 22; cf. Cic. N. D. 2, 50: “solvere,” Cels. 1, 3: “exonerare,” Plin. 10, 44, 61, § 126: “inanire,” id. 20, 3, 8, § 14 et saep.: “non descendit alvus,” is costive, Cels. 2, 7: “cui satis alvus reddit cotidie,” id. 2, 12, n. 2: “alvus cita,” active, id. 1, 6: “alvum bonam facere,” Cato, R. R. 114: “movere,” id. ib. 115: “citare,” Col. 7, 9, 9: “adstringere alvum,” to make costive, Cels. 1, 3; so also: cohibere, comprimere, supprimere, firmare, sistere, inhibere, etc., to bind, constipate, etc.—In plur.: “ad eliciendas alvos,” Plin. 19, 5, 26, § 2.—Hence, for excrement: “alvus varia,” Cels. 2, 6: “alvus liquida, nigra, pallida, pinguis,” id. ib.; and for flux, diarrhœa: alvus corpus ac vires carpit, Col. 6, 7.—
II. Transf.
A. The womb: “in alvo gestare,” Plaut. Stich. 2, 1, 5; “twice in Cic.: cum praegnans Dionysium alvo contineret,” Cic. Div. 1, 20: “spes in alvo commendata,” id. Clu. 12; so Hor. C. 4, 6, 20; id. A. P. 340 al.—
C. A beehive (very freq.): “mediā alvo, quā introeant apes,” Varr. R. R. 3, 16, 15: “alvi melle plenae,” Plin. 21, 12, 43, § 73: “si plenae alvi fuerint,” id. 11, 15, 15, § 40: “(apes) alvo se continent,” id. 11, 16, 15, § 43; Col. 9, 8, 1; 9, 14, 7; so id. 9, 15, 11.—
D. Of the basin of the molten sea in the Jewish temple: “(boves) alvum maris circuibant,” Vulg. 2 Par. 4, 3.
