enteron

In hindsight, Enteron seems right for a company of such ungoverned appetites.

What's more, a specialized industrial sense of enteron was reported to be "a pipeline system transmitting nourishment."

Mr. Lay wanted to call it Enteron, until they realized that was a biology term for the digestive tract.

Pitfalls abound: "Enron" originally chose "Enteron," the medical term for the excretory canal.

In medicine, enteritis, from Greek words enteron (Small Intestine) and suffix -itis (Inflammation), refers to inflammation of the small intestine.

The species name chrysantha derives from the Greek xrus meaning " golden " and enteron meaning " guts ", with reference to the golden centre of the flowers.

The merged company, with Mr. Lay in charge, announced plans to change its name to Enteron - until company executives learned that this was also another word for the digestive tract.

In the naming of the merged Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth companies in 1986, the consultants Lippincott & Margulies suggested "Enteron," of Greek origin, which began with the first syllable of "energy" and concluded with the slick, with-it on.

However, when it was pointed out to the directors that the common medical meaning of enteron was "alimentary canal, intestines, guts," company officials hastily demanded that a new name be found evocative of energy and the future but with no suggestion of upset stomach or bowel movement.

Simply choosing an appropriate replacement for the name "Houston Natural Gas/Internorth" almost foundered in the mid-1980's when Kenneth L. Lay, the chief executive, learned days before the public rollout that the first choice, "Enteron," meant the digestive tract - not exactly the image a natural gas company craved.

Lay and his secretary, Nancy McNeil, originally selected the name "Enteron" (possibly spelled in "camelcase" as "EnterOn"), but, when informed that the term approximated a Greek word referring to the intestines, the name was quickly abbreviated to Enron.