Digestibilis

Digestibilis is a Latin adjective meaning "able to be digested." In modern English scientific writing, the term is not used as a standalone concept; instead, the English equivalents digestible or digestibility are commonly employed. The form digestibilis appears primarily in Latin phrases within taxonomic, anatomical, or nutritional descriptions.

In taxonomy, digestibilis can function as a species epithet or subspecific epithet, signaling a perceived attribute related to digestion or the digestibility of the organism or material studied. It is not a distinct taxonomic rank; rather, it is part of a Latin name chosen by an author to encode a qualitative trait.

In nutrition and physiology, the word may appear in Latinized descriptors of feeds, tissues, or digestive processes in historical or archival literature. Contemporary texts more often use the English terms digestible and digestibility. Methodologically, digestibility is measured as the proportion of a nutrient that is absorbed, typically expressed as apparent digestibility or true digestibility, the latter assessed via ileal or fecal sampling in feeding trials.

Etymology and nuance: digestibilis derives from the Latin digestio, digestion, and the suffix -bilis meaning capable of. The counterpart is indigestibilis, meaning not digestible. The usage is largely philological or archival, and care should be taken to distinguish Latin descriptors from current quantitative measures used in modern nutrition and physiology.