A question about a word

For native English people especially.

The word in question is Villi. Do you understand what it is right away, or is it a term that most people would need to google?

In case you are curious, it's the littel things that cover the insides of intestine and help increase surface area to better absorb nutrients.
Here's how they look:


The reason I need this - I'm writing a tentacle story, and I want to describe the inside tecture of the "stomach" of the beast that it has similar texture. In the intestine these things are very small, but in my case they'll be large. If the word is difficult/unknown - will sumeone advice me how to better describe such texture? Obviously I don't want my readers to have to google stuff to understand what I'm describing.

The word in question is Villi. Do you understand what it is right away, or is it a term that most people would need to google?

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I recalled the word "villi" from a long ago biology class. However, you might add in your story a parenthetical phrase, "you know, the tiny finger-like projections in the small intestine."

Or, you might work it in as dialogue.
He: "They are like villi."
She: "What?"
He: "Remember from biology? They are the tiny finger-like projections in the small intestine."
She: "Oh yeah, I thought you were talking about villas."

There's no dialogue in that one. A giant rapey slug with a fascination for elven maidens doesn't really have MUCH to discuss =D

But your post game me an idea. What if I describe it as simply "Lots of soft fleshy projections the length of the finger"
Would that draw a good enough picture? Or will that only be more confusing?

I'd have to look it up if it wasn't clarified within the context.

Yeah, that's what I thought.
I'm trying to figure out how to better describe that strange formation... Anything I come up with in my head - I'm afraid sounds too odd or technical. For example "The walls were covered in a forest of thick fleshy protrusions, each roughly as long as a finger and moving slowly, seemingly completely at random."

Something like that -_-

At first, I didn't remember what Villi were, but when you have explanation of what you wanted, I remembered. From what I understand, the visual reminded me of sea anemone, you know, the ones clown fish live in. I've never felt a sea anemone, partly because they are poisonous to humans.
The texture you mentioned above "fingers" suggest movement...how soft or squishy are these fingers? What does the texture remind you of? (E.g. tofu, tongues?)

The texture you mentioned above "fingers" suggest movement...how soft or squishy are these fingers? What does the texture remind you of? (E.g. tofu, tongues?)

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Those details I will include, naturally. Right now I mainly need to hammer out the basic presentation - how to describe such formation with words.

Clearly villi is not the way to go, because many native English-speakers seem to be confused - then non-native definitely will be.

Does the "sea or forest of soft fleshy protrusions" describe it well enough? If you didn't know what we are talking about.

If you use the word in context, with some description, I think it will work, even if most of your readers don't know right off what the word means in isolation. It's perfectly fine to use vocabulary that stretches your readers' understanding if you use it correctly and have enough context around it that they can figure it out.

I'm actually also hesitating about the word because it's supposed to be a fantasy, swords and bows kind of era. And I don't think they studied anatomy as well in those time as to name microscopic intestine structure.

Maybe I'm overthinking, but to me the word doesn't really match...

Won't work here, that's for sure. It's a brand of meat pie!

Explain in context, as suggested by others, would work best - most people aren't biologists .

Anyway, thanks for feedback, guys. That's exactly what I needed.

Nezhul said:

I'm afraid sounds too odd or technical. For example "The walls were covered in a forest of thick fleshy protrusions, each roughly as long as a finger and moving slowly, seemingly completely at random."

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I actually like this over the single word with the added explanation. The above, or something like it, seems to add colour and dimension to what you're trying to put across.