the.com/diaphragm
the muscle that breathes you 20,000 times a day without asking permission
means The dome-shaped sheet of muscle beneath your lungs that contracts and relaxes to pull air in and push it out — and, by extension, any thin dividing membrane or partition in anatomy, optics, or machinery.
from From Greek 'diaphragma,' a partition or barrier, built from 'dia-' (across) and 'phrassein' (to fence or wall off) — literally the wall fenced across the body. It traveled through Latin into medieval medical writing, where it named the muscular floor separating the chest from the belly, and later spread to anything that divides one space from another.
- hiccup origin
- Spasms here cause every hiccup you've ever had
- vital divider
- Separates your heart and lungs from your guts
- never rests
- Contracts roughly 22,000 times every single day
- laugh engine
- Powers laughing, crying, sneezing, and singing alike
- phrenic nerve
- Controlled by nerves rooted in your neck