Anatomy Words

2008-02-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Aorta has an uncertain derivation. The first recorded mention of the word was by Hippocrates in the 5^th century BC who used it to describe the trachea and its branches. Given the windpipe’s function, the term may have come from combination of the Greek aer (air) and tepeo (to hold).

Though he also subscribed to the Greek convention that arteries carried air, Aristotle, in the 4^th century BC, was the first to apply the word to the vessel it is associated with today, inspired perhaps by a fancied resemblance to the arched sheath of an aorta, a large Greek knife with a curved handle.

Another candidate for Aristotle’s inspiration: aortemei, a Greek word meaning "suspend" (from aorter, a Grecian shoulder strap that things were hung from). Given all the blood vessels that branch to the viscera from the aorta, one can see how it may resemble a strap of sorts suspending the heart, kidney, stomach, and intestines.

Or it could it could be all of these; surely Aristotle loved puns just as much as the next guy.

2008-02-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Biceps comes from the Latin words bis (twice) and caput (head). The biceps brachii is a muscle with two "heads" (or origins).

"Biceps" is typically used in both the singular and plural, though to be strictly proper the correct plural form is "bicipites". About a quarter of the usage on the Internet is the incorrect, pseudo-singular "bicep".

The biceps brachii was named in 1734 by the German anatomist Bernhard Weiss (who went by the Latinized name of Albinus).

Albinus (1697-1770)
commons.wikimedia.org

2008-01-29T16:12:00.001-08:00

From the archives:

Coronary, from the Latin corona, garland, wreath, or crown. Corona is also Latin for boundary.

When viewed from above, it can be seen that the right and left coronary arteries (more specifically, the right coronary and circumflex branch of the the left coronary) encircle the heart like a crown.

The coronal suture of the skull, linking the frontal bone to the parietals, is arranged vertically instead of encircling the cranium. It is very roughly reminiscent of the style favored by Roman emperors for the wearing of a garland, or corona , i.e., high on the forehead, and this has been suggested as the inspiration of suture's name.

However, the another Latin meaning of corona is a boundary such as the edge of a field and, perhaps from this definition, the anterior edge of the hair on the head. Especially in one with a receding hairline, the position of the coronal suture and the pattern of hair growth closely match, and perhaps from this relationship came the name of the suture Others suggest the term simply is in reference to the edge of the frontal bone.

In any event, corona in an anatomical sense does not appear in any extant Roman writings. It first makes its appearance around the 10th century in Latin translations of Arabic anatomical texts.

A coronal section initially referred to a cut made along the coronal suture. The term has since become generalized to mean any such cut that separates anterior and posterior regions.

Some non-anatomic words derived from the Latin corona include coronation and coroner (the original definition of the latter word was "an officer appointed by the crown").


A transverse section through a plane containing the heart valves. The circumflex artery curves around the mitral valve on the left, and on the opposite side, the right coronary artery curves around the tricuspid, with both vessels almost touching posteriorly and thus completing the crown. radiologynotes.servehttp.com	Julius Caesar wearing a corona. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

2008-01-22T13:12:00.001-08:00

From the archive:

Amygdala, Greek for almond. A mass of gray matter located within the temporal lobe of the cerebrum; It has the shape and approximate size of an almond kernel.

Almonds
www.mypyramid.gov

Among other activities, the amygdala functions in the processing of fear-related memories and helps to coordinate appropriate responses to fearful situations. In other words, using the amygdala, we learn to be afraid.

In humans, tumors in or near the amygdala have been associated with uncontrolled rage. Consider the tragic case of Charles Whitman, who, on an August day in 1966, stabbed to death his wife and mother and then climbed to the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower with a high-power rifle. For 90 minutes he gunned down people below, killing 14 and wounding 19 before being shot and killed by police. In a note found later he wrote about his "unusual and irrational thoughts” and wanted his body to be examined to see if a physical cause could be found for his "mental anguish". An autopsy was performed and a tumor compressing his amygdala was found. No proof of cause and effect but compelling evidence nonetheless of the role the amygdala plays in behavior.

McLeod, M. (2000). Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper. Crimelibrary.com/serial/whitman/index.htm

2008-01-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Tragus, from the Latin tragos, goat: the skin-covered, cartilaginous flap just anterior to the opening of the external ear canal. "Covering your ears" with your fingers is done by pressing the tragus down over the opening.

Photo by Tony Boon

www.tonyboon.co.uk/

The strange etymology seems to be related to the tufts of hair that will often appear on the tragus, particularly in older men, though just how this hair is linked to goats is a matter of conjecture. The most common explanation is that an imaginative ancient Greek anatomist, name unknown, was reminded of the hair on the chin of a goat (the one problem with this idea: the hair on the tragus really doesn't look much like mental goat hair). Or, perhaps, its the stiff, bristly texture typical of the hair that's so caprine. Or, as it's been suggested, in particularly luxuriant cases these hairs might remind one of the animal-like (i.e. hairy) ears of the satyr, the half-man, half-goat of Greek mythology. None of the explanations are compelling, but they're all we got.

Another name for the tragus-hair is barbula, the diminutive of barbus, Latin for beard and the ancestral root of barber, barb, and beard.

Goat or satyr? Barbula on the tragus of a middle-aged man.
Photo by C. Carpenter

A satyr from an ancient Roman woodcut: hardly the image of the sexy satyr usually depicted, but the hairy ear is nice (yes, that is an ear and not the side-hair of a baldpate). Adapted from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd Edition by Anthony Rich. 1874

2008-01-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Cauda equina comes from the Latin cauda (tail) and equina (horse). The "horse's tail" is an appropriately named collection of dorsal and ventral spinal nerve roots that hang off the spinal cord.

The the term was coined in 1600 by the French anatomist Andrea Laurens (also known by his latinized name, Andreas Laurentius).

Andrea Laurens's original drawing of the cauda equina, with this accompanying description (translated from the Latin): "Spinal cord displayed after immersion in water with all of the nerves exiting in a hair-like configuration suggesting a horse's tail..."
http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/reprint/169/2/320.pdf

The rabbinical writers of the Talmud in the second century A.D. were the first to describe the structure. The Talmud was not an anatomy text of course, but accurate anatomical descriptions were required so that rabbis, when examining sacrificed animals, could determine whether the meat was either kosher or trefe, i.e. unsuitable, according to Jewish law.

Interestingly, the ancient rabbis were more accurate in their accounts than the two greatest anatomists of the enlightenment, Andreas Vesalius (the first "modern" anatomist) and Thomas Willis (the father of neuroanatomy). Both failed to recognize the cauda equina's existence, over a dozen centuries after the Talmudic accounts, even while providing detailed drawings of the spinal cord and its nerves. Vesalius was active a couple of generations before Andrea Laurens. Willis, from England, worked a couple of generations after Laurens, apparently unaware of the Frenchman's accomplishments.

Other anatomical structures with cauda in their names include the caudate lobe of the liver (meaning "towards the tail " or in this context, inferior) and the caudate nucleus of the cerebrum, a mass of gray matter with a long tail.

The coda, or the "tail end" of a musical composition, is also derived from cauda.

2008-01-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Adventitia comes from the Latin word adventicius, foreign, which in turn is derived from adventus, arrival (formed by ad, to, and venire, to come). The term is used to describe specific layers, typically the outermost layers of certain hollow organs, that develop from nearby tissues.

An example is the tunica adventitia which ostensibly is part of the structure of arteries and veins, forming their outer coats, but in fact is derived from surrounding connective tissue. By the same token, the outer adventitia layer of some alimentary canal organs are also formed from the local connective tissue, in particular those organs, such as the esophagus and rectum, that are not within the peritoneal cavity and thus not in need of a protective serous coating.

Diagram adapted from Wikipedia

Another anatomical use, again in the sense of something "foreign", is seen in the adventitious bursae which form in locations where bursae are usually not found, typically in response to trauma or friction. An example is the bursa that may develop over the ischial tuberosisty in people who sit for extended periods of time. Inflammation of this bursa was called "weaver's bottom" back in the day.

A non-anatomical but related word is advent: coming or arrival.

2008-01-08T23:36:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Adam’s apple: The anterior lump in the neck, formed by the laryngeal prominence of the thyroid cartilage, the largest cartilage of the larynx.

The Adam’s apple is usually larger in men, but the overall size of the thyroid cartilage, relative to body size, is the same in both men and women. What is often different is the angle that the two anterior, vertical plates (laminae) of the cartilage make in forming the prominence: in a typical man the angle is about 90 degrees; in most women, a shallower 120. Thus in men, the cartilage usually protrudes a bit more.

It is not uncommon for a woman to have an Adam's apple larger than a man.

sandrabullock.com

Regarding the etymology of "Adam's apple", typical is the entry in Webster's 1913 dictionary stating the term "… is so called from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit, (an apple) sticking in the throat of [Adam]." This is pure supposition, and in fact, the term Adam's apple arose through a very early mistranlation of the Hebrew for “male bump”, tappuach ha adam, that was used to denote this anatomical feature. This is understandable as adam is Hebrew for “man” and tappuach is very similar if not identical to an old Hebrew word for apple (although some modern scholars now translate tappuach as quince or citron and others consider the term a generic for any spherical citrus). There is no mention in Genesis that the "forbidden fruit" was actually an apple anyway.

2008-01-07T23:39:00.000-08:00

From the archive:

Muscle comes from the Latin for "little mouse", musculus (the diminutive of mus).

Two explanations are usually given for the peculiar transformation of mouse to muscle. One has it that the movement of a contracting muscle under the skin is reminiscent of a mouse moving beneath a rug; The biceps brachii is typically used as an example. The other explanation is that, in the abstract at least, some muscles look a bit like mice: specifically those with long, thin tendons (the mouse tails) emerging from oblong muscle bodies. The muscles of the forearm are among many that are illustrative.

The second explanation is as plausible as the first, Although neither seem compelling. But why any relatively large muscle would be called a little mouse in the first place remains a mystery. (A sense of humor on the part of early anatomists cannot be ruled out!). In any event, it could easily have been muscles of dissected animals and not humans that were were the inspiration for the name.

Interestingly, mussel (the mollusk) is also derived from musculus, perhaps because some species have the shape of a mouse ear.

The difference in spelling between "muscle" and "mussel" is due to the different post-Latin paths taken by musculus. Muscle comes to us through French; mussel came out of Old English.

The little mice of the anterior forearm: some imagination may be required. From Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, 20th ed. (1918) via Bartleby.com

A couple of mussels doing their best to impersonate mouse ears. From www.town.barnstable.ma.us

2008-01-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Cubital, from the Latin cubitus, elbow; also: the distance from the elbow to the fingertips (a "cubit"), an ancient unit of measurement used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, among others. Depending on the time and place, it ranged between 18 and 25 inches, give or take.

Cubitus comes from cubo, Latin for "I lie down", supposedly because the ancient Romans were in the habit of resting on the forearm during meals.

Illustration by Gilbert Ford
www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0905web/glutton2.html

2008-01-03T23:21:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Iris, directly from the Greek iris, rainbow. Aristotle also used the term to describe the bright halos that sometimes encircle the moon.

Rainbows and halos: no wonder the Danish anatomist Jacob Winslow, in 1721, chose to call the pigmented, circular arrangement of smooth muscle that surrounds the pupil the iris. Though it was with this coinage that the term become firmly established in anatomy, the Greek author and physician Rufus of Ephesus also called this part of the eye the iris a full 1,600 years earlier, apparently unbeknownst to Winslow (Ephesus also named the optic chiasm).

A lunar iris, per Aristotle
www.pixheaven.net

Iris was a Greek goddess before being a rainbow: she was a messenger among the Greek pantheon. Iris became associated with rainbows because they were a symbol of good news in Greek society and she apparently brought her fair share of welcome reports.

The Goddess Iris.
Detail from ancient Greek clay vase. Photo from Sotheby's London F15923. © Sotheby's

2008-01-02T23:45:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Hyoid, from the Greek letter Υ (upsilon) and eidus, Greek for shape; thus, "shaped like an upsilon".

The derivation of the word is better understood if you think of hyoid as "Υoid", The "Υ", however, is not a reference to the shape of the upper case upsilon (Υ) but rather to the lower case form of upsilon (υ).

Upslion, lower and upper cases

Its exclusive anatomical use is for the υ-shaped hyoid bone in the neck and related structures such as the sternohyoid and stylohyoid muscles. It is one of the oldest words in anatomy, first used by the seminal Greek anatomist Herophilus around 300 B.C.

The hyoid bone
http://phs.psdr3.org

If hyoid means Υ-oid, where did the initial "h" come from? In the spoken language of the ancient Greeks, whenever upsilon was used as the first letter in a word, it was always preceded by "rough breathing", i.e., the "h" sound, and was so indicated in Greek writing by a small mark in front of the letter (i.e. 'Υ). Scholars of Greek later replaced the mark with the letter "h". This pattern is seen in many other Greek-derived words, such as those that begin with hyper- and hypo-.

The hyoid is the only bone in the body that does not articulate directly with other bones. It is a favorite of murder-mystery writers because it is evidence of strangulation when broken.

2007-12-25T22:52:00.000-08:00

The Anatomy Word of the Day will return on January 2nd, 2008.

Happy holidays everyone!

2007-12-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Clavicle, the collarbone: the slender, sigmoid-shaped bone that links the manubrium of the sternum to the acromion of the scapula. From the Latin clavicula, ‘small key’, a translation of the Greek kleidion.

The word was coined in the 12 century by the translators of the 10 century Persian physician Abu Ali Sina (his name was often latinized as Avicenna) whose works were a mainstay of European medicine the until the mid-17th century. Ali Sina used alchiab, ("the key") for collarbone, this from his own translations of Latin anatomy treatises from ancient Rome.

Ala Sina's translators returned to the Latin, renaming alchiab the clavicula, the diminutive of clavis (key).

But why key? A common tale is that the Romans likened the collarbone to a clavis simply because of similarity in appearance. However, it was probably not Roman door keys, which do not resemble clavicles, that were alluded to but rather S-shaped lift-latches, a primitive type key type first seen the Iron Age and common in Rome.

A Roman lift-latch ca 350 BC:
designed to allow a door-latch
to be lifted through a hole in the door.
It acted as a simple key. England, ca 350 BC
www.romansinsussex.co.uk

It has also been suggested that the relationship of the clavicle to a key is metaphorical, given that the bone "locks" the shoulder girdle to the trunk. Of course neither of these explanations are mutually exclusive, as the key shape lends itself nicely to the metaphor.

Perhaps though, "key" was a mistranslation by Ali Sina: yet another explanation is that the name comes from the resemblance of the bone to a toy, a curved stick called a clavicula or clavis trochi used by Greek and Roman children to roll, or trundle, a hoop.

A clavicula or clavis trochi, a child's toy for trundling a wheel in ancient Greece and Rome; from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd Edition by Anthony Rich. 1874

A minority view holds that the term has nothing to do with keys or trundles or metaphors but rather is named for the clavicle's resemblance to the sinuous tendrils of some plants. The Latin word for tendril is also clavicula.

The original Greek kleidion lives on in sternocleidomastoid muscle

Anatomically unrelated: the clavichord was the first keyboard instrument.

2007-12-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Finger comes unaltered from Old English (i.e. Anglo-Saxon). Indeed, the word is found, spelling unchanged, in most of the Germanic languages (e.g. German, Swedish, and Danish); The Dutch get by with vinger.

Each of the fingers have had their own Latin names. Some examples are given in the Aberdeen Beastiary, published in Scotland in the 14th century. (A bestiary is a collection of descriptions of all sorts of animals - some real, some imaginary - and other features of the natural or unnatural world.) From the Bestiary:

"The [first] finger, index, is also known as salutaris or demonstratorius, the greeting or indicating finger, because we generally use it in greeting, showing or pointing."
"The [second, middle] finger is called impudicus, lewd; it is frequently used to express the pursuit of something shameful."
"The [third] is the ring finger, anularis, because it is the one on which a ring is worn. It is also called medicinalis, the medical finger, because it used by physicians to smear on ground-up salves."
"The [fourth] finger is called auricularis, because we scrape our ear, auris, with it."

A digital display: Galileo Galilee's impudicus finger is on exhibit at the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence, Italy. www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/finger.html

2007-12-14T10:36:00.001-08:00

From the archives:

Malar - relating to the cheek. From the Latin mala, cheek. The only remaining use for the word in anatomy is seen in "malar lymph nodes". The "cheek bone" was once called the malar, but the Terminologia Anatomica now only recognizes zygomatic bone.

Mala is probably derived from malus, Latin for apple; see the photo below for some evidence as to why apples and cheeks have been linked.

Definitely derived from malus is malic acid, first isolated in apple juice in the 18th century and responsible for the tart taste of apples, grapes, and rhubarb, among other foods.

mywebpages.comcast.net/sallyepp

2007-12-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Fascicle comes from fasciculus, the diminutive of the Latin word for bundle, fascis. The term is used to describe either bundles of axons within nerves or bundles of muscle cells within muscles (fascicles form the visible grain of a muscle as well as the strings of pot roast that may get stuck between your teeth).

Six fascicles, each a bundle of axons, seen in a cross-section of a small nerve about 1 mm in diameter.
From Wikipedia.com

In ancient Rome, the fasces (plural of fascis) was the name given to the official insignia of authority: an axe suspended over a bound bundle of birch rods. Through the centuries, fasces became a symbol for solidarity as well (an allusion to the bundle), eventually giving rise to the Italian word for a "united political group", fascio. One such organization, founded in Italy in 1919 by a newspaper editor named Benito Mussolini, was the Fasci di Combattimento, a collection of disgruntled Italian citizens that used the fasces as its logo.

In 1921 Mussolini and his group, by then a full-blown political party, had gained total control of Italy, in part through brutal suppression of the opposition. In the same year the English press, in reference to Mussolin's Fasci organization, began calling members of the movement fascists and its ruthless philosophy fascism. The names stuck.

A ancient Roman fasces in a bas-relief at the Matte Palace in Rome. From A Dictionary of Roman Antiquities, by Antony Rich, Appelton, 1874.

A fasces was on the US dime from 1916-1945.

2007-12-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Coccyx, the tail bone, comes from kokkyx, Greek for cuckoo. One of the oldest words in anatomy, it was coined around 300 B.C. by Herophilus who, it is said, was inspired by the cuckoo's bill (probably that of the common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus). However, he was more likely taken by the anterior portion of the cuccko skull, which bears a greater resemblance to the coccyx than just the bill alone (see the photos below).

A more fanciful explanation of the link between cuckoo and coccyx was provided in the early 17th century by the French anatomist and surgeon Johann Riolan, who inexplicably insisted that the sound of flatus emanating from the coccygeal region was reminiscent of the call of a cuckoo and thus was the inspiration for Herophilus. Never mind that neither the male nor the female of any cuckoo species has a call that you'd confuse with flatulence (indeed, the classic sound of the cuckoo clock was patterned after the call of the male common cuckoo). Perhaps the professeur simply had a talented friend.

Nonetheless, the coccyx has been called the "whistle bone" for its proximity to the source of digestive tract toots.

Unrelated but interesting: The word "cuckold" (a man whose wife has cheated on him) also comes from cuckoo, derived from the female's nasty habit of laying eggs in nests not her own and thus tricking other birds into raising her young. Likewise, a cuckold may raise children that aren't his.

Image credits

coccyx from

summit.stanford.edu
The common cuckoo from

www.xpress.se/~jani0084/2005.htm
cuckoo skull
www.skullsite.com

2007-12-10T05:52:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Achilles tendon: the common tendon of the gastrocnemius, soleus, and sometimes the plantaris muscles; also known as the calcaneal tendon. It attaches to the posterior portion of the calcaneus or heel bone.

The name comes indirectly from Greek mythology: After receiving a prophecy that her young son, Achilles, would die in battle, the goddess Thetis dipped him into the magical, protective waters of the river Styx. However, she held him by his heel which was not immersed and thus remained vulnerable. Years later, as luck would have it, Achilles was fatally wounded during the Trojan War: a poison arrow in the back of the foot, a region henceforth known as Achilles heel (and so, metaphorically, an "Achilles heel" is a seemingly insignificant but in fact critical weakness).

It wasn't until 1693 that the term Achilles tendon appeared (chorda Achillis in the original Latin), so named by the resourceful Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen while dissecting his own amputated leg.

Thetis dipping Achilles in the river Styx.
Sculpture by Thomas Banks (1735-1805)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Philip Verheyen dissecting his Achilles tendon. Artist: anonymous; from the collection of Pieter Deheijde, Amsterdam

2007-12-06T00:31:00.000-08:00

From the archives...

Sphincter was first used by Galen in the 2nd century, probably as an allusion to the talented constrictor that was the Sphinx of Greek mythology. A chimera with the head of a woman and the body of a winged-lion, and who received her name from the Greek sphingo, "I strangle", the Sphinx sat outside Thebes and demanded that all passersby answer her riddle: "Which creature travels in the morning on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" She strangled anyone unable to answer. Oedipus finally provided the correct response.

A fourth century BC kylix
from the Vatican Museum showing
Oedipus with the Sphinx
wikipedia.org

Note that the Grecian Sphinx is not the same as the sphinxes of Egypt: The Greek name "sphinx" was inexplicably applied some 2600 years ago to an Egyptian chimeric lion, even though it is wingless and has the head of a man not a woman. The original Egyptian name of this creature is unknown. The most famous of the Egyptian sphinxes is the Great Sphinx of Giza.

2007-12-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

Colostrum, the first milk secreted by the mother after giving birth, comes from the Latin colostra, a word with the same meaning used by the Romans. Colostra appeared in English in the late 16th century, joining the equivalent terms of "beestings" and "green milk" (both of which, unfortunately, having since disappeared from the language).

By the early 19th century, the spelling had changed to colostrum.

Aulus Plautius, the politician and general who lead the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 A.D., used colostra as a word of endearment: Meum mel, meum cor, mea colostra: "my honey, my heart, my colostra".

2007-12-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

Cornea, from the Latin, cornu, animal horn, and corneus, horny (i.e., tough and hard like a horn).

It seems strange for the cornea, the transparent and seemingly delicate anterior surface of the eye, to be etymologically related to an animal horn but it was recognized long ago that the structure, when dissected, is surprisingly hard; thus its "horny" nature.

The stratum corneum, the name given to tough outer layer of the skin, also comes from cornu, as does the corniculate cartilage of the larynx (literally, corniculate means "shaped like a little horn").

Some other words derived from cornu include Capricorn (literally, a goat's horn), cornucopia (the horn of plenty), and cornet (which, like all musical horns, can trace its ultimate ancestry back to the animal horns used as musical instruments by prehistoric humans).

Note that although the coronoid processes of the mandible and ulna have a shape reminiscent of animals horns, "coronoid" is derived not from cornu but from korone, Latin for crow, or korax, Latin for raven. Charitably, these structures also resemble a corvid's beak, though the Greeks often used korax for many structures with a slightly hooked or pointed tip, such as the handles of their doors (see coracoid).

2007-12-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Foramen is taken directly from the Latin word for hole, foramen, which in turn comes from the Latin forare, to pierce.

There are 40 named foramina in the Terminologia Anatomica; most are in the skeletal system and the majority of those are in the skull.

Perforate is also derived from forare.

2007-11-30T00:07:00.000-08:00

Ankle comes from the Latin angulus (little corner or angle; hook-like) for the bend between the foot and the leg.

Angulus may also be the source for the Latin word angeion, small blood vessel, perhaps in reference to the frequent branching of such. Angeion gives us the combining form angio-, blood vessel, as in angiogram, angiogenesis, and angiotensin.

Non-anatomical tidbits: another word derived from angulus is Angul, the name given to the hook-shaped bit of land in what is now the Netherlands. From this area came the Angles, who along with the Saxons and Jutes, formed the Anglo-Saxons, the people who inhabited the land now called England in the 500 years prior to the Norman invasion of 1066.

An angler, one who fishes (with hooks), is also derived from angulus.

Picasso, Foot, 1894, Charcoal and crayon on paper, Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain.

2007-11-29T00:09:00.000-08:00

Bile comes from the Latin word for bile, bilis.

The Greek word for bile is cholé and is an oft used combining form: a cholecystectomy is the removal of the gall bladder, literally, "removal of the bile bag" (cyst is derived from the Greek kystis, bag or pouch). Cholecystokinin (CCK) is a hormone that stimulates gall bladder contractions, among other functions (-kinin comes from the Greek kinein, to move or stimulate).

To the ancient Greeks and Romans and other believers in the "four humors", melancholy, from melos (Greek for black) and cholé, was thought caused by an excess of "black bile". The word choleric, meaning easily angered or annoyed, stems from the notion that excessive "yellow bile" was responsible for one's ill-temper. Bile, in its non-physiological sense, still refers to a choleric disposition (as in "full of bile") and bilious, from bilis, refers to someone who is peevish or, logically enough, ill-humored.

Gall comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for bile, galla; thus the "gall bladder", the organ that stores and concentrates bile.

2007-11-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

Dens, a tooth-like process on the axis (the second cervical vertebra). From the Latin word for tooth, dens.

An alternative name for the dens is odontoid process (from the Greek odous, tooth, and -oeides, shaped). The term is no longer recognized by the Terminologia Anatomica, but is still firmly entrenched in the anatomical lexicon.

Other words related to dens: dentist, dentate (having a toothed or serrated edge), trident (a three-pronged, or toothed, spear), dandelion (from the French dent de lion, "tooth of the lion", referring to the dentated edge of the plant's leaves), and dentine (also dentin), the bone-like tissue that makes up the bulk of the tooth.

Anterior view of the axis. The oval facet visible on the dens articulates with the anterior arch of the atlas. wheelessonline.com

2007-11-27T01:08:00.000-08:00

Medulla, Latin for marrow. Because of its derivation from the Latin medius, middle or core, medulla often implies a deep region within a structure, such as the renal medulla or the medulla of the adrenal gland.

Medulla was the word Vesalius used for the spinal cord, inspired perhaps by the name the Greeks favored: myelos rachites, "marrow of the spine". Indeed, the soft neural tissue of the spinal cord within the vertebral canal of the spinal column does remind one of marrow present in the hollow shaft of a long bone (in the space appropriately called the medullary cavity).

"Marrow" still appears in many English dictionaries as an alternative name for the spinal cord, though this definition has been long since discarded by anatomists.

In spite of being part of the brain, it is the spinal cord that's referred to in medulla oblongata. The term was first used by the German anatomist Lorenz Heister in 1740 and it's not clear why: its meaning does not make a lot of sense ("oblong-shaped spinal cord" or as some translate it, "rather long spinal cord") and there had been a reasonable term in use earlier, the medulla prolongata, which does make sense ("spinal cord extension"). Nonetheless, medulla oblongata became established while medulla prolongata disappeared.

Heister's original use of the term was for the entire brain stem. In 1750, the Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller restricted the use to its present meaning: the thumb-size segment of brain stem continuous with the spinal cord. (Haller, considered the father of modern physiology by many medical historians, named the Graafian follicle in honor of Dutch anatomist and poet Reinier De Graaf who discovered the ovarian follicles (but thought they were eggs)

Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) www.ilmyco.gen.chicago.il.us

2007-11-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

Chiasma, a "crossing", from the Greek letter for X, chi (pronounced "ki", rhyming with "sky").

The term was first used by first century Romans for the X-shaped crossing of the optic nerves just anterior to the pituitary. For some reason the word fell out of favor with subsequent generations of anatomists; not until the late 1500's was it revived, reentering the anatomical lexicon for a permanent stay (although "optic chiasm" is now preferred over "optic chiasma" by about a 4 to 1 ratio; both terms are recognized by the Terminologia Anatomica.)

True to its derivation, chiasma is pronounced with a hard ch, as in "chronicle".

Chi

2007-11-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Mitral is derived from the Latin mitra, girdle or turban, which gave rise to mitre, the ceremonial head-dress first worn by Roman Catholic bishops. Subsequently the hat was adopted by bishops of the Anglican, Episcopal, and some of the Christian orthodox churches.


A 15th century bishops' mitre on the left, a present-day mitre on the right, and in the middle, a 16th century-style mitre from the time of Vesalius. Adapted from the Catholic Encyclopedia www.newadvent.org		21st century mitre. murphyrobes.com

The mitral valve of the heart, positioned between the left atrium and left ventricle, was so named by Vesalius in the 16th century because its two parallel cusps (flaps) resemble of the paired, pointed "horns" or cornua of an (upside-down) bishop's mitre. Thomas Henry Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog" and the person who coined "agnostic", would give his students this mnemonic to remind them the valve was on the left: "a bishop is never in the right."

The mitral valve is also known as the bicuspid valve or the left atrioventricular (AV) valve. The Terminologia Anatomica no longer lists bicuspid.

Upside down view of the mitral valve showing its mitre-like appearance. From top to bottom, note the papillary muscles, the chordae tenidneae, and two cusps of the valve www.lionden.com

2007-11-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

From the archives:

Mental, in anatomy, is an adjective meaning "related to the chin". It comes from the Latin word for chin, mentum.

Its use is seen in the mentalis, a muscle covering the tip of the chin, and the mental foramen, a small passageway found near the chin on each side of the mandible through which the mental artery, vein, and nerve pass.

Across all cultures it is common for people to touch their their chins as they ponder, but mental as in "mental images" comes from mens, Latin for mind, and not from mentum. However, as mentum is so closely linked to mens through our behavior, some etymologists believe (albeit without evidence) that both words are somehow etymologically related.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin: engaged
in two types of mental activity.

2007-11-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

The Anatomy Word of the Day is taking a Thanksgiving break. The next few days' worth of entries are from the archives.

Fornix (plural, fornices), comes directly from the Latin word for a vault, i.e., a small room with an arched ceiling. Often the term was by the Romans in specific reference to rooms occupied by slaves or the poor. Street prostitutes were known to provide their services in fornices; hence the word "fornication".

The use of fornix in anatomy includes:

The left and right fornices of the brain's limbic system, formed by white matter tracts that arch over the diencephalon,
The vaginal fornix, the vaulted space in the vagina that surrounds the cervix of the uterus
The gastric fornix, a term used in radiology for the internal arch of the fundus.

A series of fornices in Roman ruins, Gaeta, Italy, with the front walls and doors long gone. Modifed from A Dictionary of Roman Antiquities, by Antony Rich, Appelton, 1874.

2007-11-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

Afferent: moving towards something; used in reference to blood, lymph, or nerve impulses. Derived from the Latin afferre, ‘bring towards’.

Afferent arterioles in the kidney convey blood towards the glomerular capillaries. Afferent neurons carry impulses towards the central nervous system (and thus are always sensory in nature). Afferent lymphatic vessels carry lymph into lymph nodes.

Afferent arterioles ('a') carrying blood to glomerular
capillaries; arrow indicates direction of flow.
(Adpated from bicmra.usuhs.mil/)

The opposite of afferent is efferent (from the Latin efferre, to carry off) which refers to movement away from a reference point. Efferent arterioles carry blood out of the glomerular capillaries. Efferent neurons carry impulses from the central nervous system (and thus are motor). Efferent lymphatic vessels carry lymph out of lymph nodes.

An easy mnemonic: Afferent Arrives, Efferent Exits.

2007-11-19T20:17:00.000-08:00

Fossa, from the Latin fossa, ditch or trench.

Anatomically, a fossa is a depression or hollow. It is the most commonly used descriptive term in anatomy, seen in 64 different structures in the Terminologia Anatomica; the most frequently cited structure (on the Internet at least) is the iliac fossa, followed by the popliteal fossa, fossa ovalis, mandibular fossa, and olecranon fossa.

A word that shares Latin roots with fossa is fossil, coming from the Latin fossalis, dug up. Fossa and fossil ultimately stem from the Latin verb fodera, to dig.

2007-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Pancreas, from the Greek pan, all, and kreas, flesh.

The original use of the term, dating to at least the time of Homer in the 8th century BC, was for any edible meat or meat-like substance. Herophilus, the 3rd century BC Greek physician out of Alexandria, was the first to use the word for the organ, naming it for its meaty appearance.

"Sweetbread" is the traditional dinner-table term for either the pancreas or thymus gland taken from calves or lambs; the culinary pancreas has also been called stomach sweetbread. Today it is typical for only the thymus to end up in a recipe while the pancreas is more likely to be sold to pharmaceutical firms.

Another word derived from kreas is creatine, the energy-storage molecule first found in skeletal muscle.

2007-11-14T22:56:00.000-08:00

Fimbria, direct from the Latin fîmbria, the ornamental fringe on the borders of clothing, cloth napkins, etc.

The fringe on the border of the uterine tubules were first called fimbria in the 17th century by the Dutch anatomist Reinier De Graaf (the man who coined "ovary" and discovered that ovaries produce eggs, and in whose honor the Graafian follicle was named).

Julius Caesar favored fimbria on the sleeves of his tunics (interesting as this was considered an exclusively feminine affectation by both the Greeks and Romans).

An engraving of a Roman dinner napkin with fimbria; from a painting found in Pompei.
From A Dictionary of Roman Antiquities, by Antony Rich, Appelton, 1874.

2007-11-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Lumen, straight from the Latin for light, lumen. The Romans also used the term for the aperture of windows, particularly round ones, and it once was the name given to the pupil of the eye.

Its anatomical usage now is reserved for the space inside a tube, e.g. an arterial lumen, a definition probably stemming from a tube's round opening when seen in cross section, or perhaps from the light seen through a tube if opened on both ends.

In physics, a lumen is a unit of brightness. A 100-watt incandescent light bulb generates about 1600 lumens.

Other words from lumen include luminary, luminescence, illuminate.

2007-11-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

Jejunum, from jenunus, Latin for empty or hungry: This portion of the small intestine, the 3 feet or so between the duodenum and ileum, is typically empty when dissected, perhaps as a result of residual peristalsis in the moments after death or because most will not have eaten in the hours before death.

The original name, given by Galen, was nestis, Greek for fasting. Later the term was translated into Latin as jejunum.

Also derived from jenunus is the word jejune, something insubstantial or devoid of interest, such as the jejune comments of politicians.

2007-11-09T23:26:00.000-08:00

Canine, aka the cuspid, the tooth between the lateral incisor and first bicuspid. It gets its name from canis, Latin for dog, which in turn comes from the Greek word for dog, kynos. The Greeks were indeed the first on record to note the tooth's superficial resemblance to the corresponding dog tooth, in particular the relatively long, often sharply pointed cusp.

The upper canines are sometimes called the "eye teeth", perhaps because their roots can extend close to the lower margin of the orbit during their development in the maxillary bones. For reasons unknown, the lower canines have been called the "stomach teeth", a phrase of uncertain origin that has all but disappeared.

Most dentists and dental hygienists freely use both canine and cuspid (perhaps preferring the former since canine would be a more familiar term to the majority of their patients). Among anatomists however the preferred term is cuspid (from the Latin cuspis, point); canine is not listed in the Terminologia Anatomica.

The crown of a developing canine (arrow) in the skull of a child approximately 9 years of age.
Photo by C Carpenter

2007-11-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

Navicular is derived from the Latin navicula, little boat (the diminutive of navis, boat).

There are two bones in the skeleton commonly called the navicular, one a carpal and the other a tarsal; both are named for their resemblance to little boats. However, the Terminologia Anatomica only recognizes the tarsal as the navicular; the carpal is more properly called the scaphoid (from the Greek skaphe that, like navicula, also means a small boat and from which comes the word skiff).

Other words derived from navis include navigation and navy.

The right navicular of the foot.

The concave, proximal surface (the top of the boat) articulates with the head of the talus. Its stern is on the foot's medal aspect.

Photo by C. Carpenter.

Modified from www.healthcareers.umn.edu

2007-11-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Dartos, the smooth muscle layer just deep to the skin of the scrotum; from the Greek, dartos, skinned or flayed.

The term was first used by Greek physicians for any anatomical preparation in which the skin had been removed. The first-century Romans, for reasons unclear, began using the term only for the muscle seen after removal of the skin of the scrotum; the name stuck.

When exposed to cold the dartos contracts. The scrotal skin wrinkles, the exposed surface area is reduced, and heat loss is minimized. Thus the muscle helps to regulate the all-important testicular temperature (and working with the spermatic cord's cremaster muscle which contracts to pull the testes towards the warm abdominal wall).

In females, a homologous muscle called the "dartos muliebris" (muliebris is Latin for "womanly") is found beneath the skin of the labia majora and is much less developed than the male counterpart. Its function probably rivals that of male nipples in importance.

2007-11-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Larynx comes directly from the Greek larynx which in turn is from larungao, Greek for scream or bellow. The earliest recorded use of the term was by Aristotle in the 4th century BC.

Commonly known as the voice-box, the larynx houses the vocal folds; it is the only component of the respiratory system located entirely within the neck.

"Larynx" is probably the most misread and thus most mispronounced word in anatomy. The correct pronunciation is "lair-rinks", not the oft-heard "lair-niks". I've had the disconcerting experience of being treated by health professionals who said lair-niks, immediately raising the perhaps unfair but easily avoidable question: What else don't they know?

Anterior view of larynx, trachea and bronchial tree
from Andreas Vesalius
De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543, p.151

2007-11-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

Omentum. The earliest recorded use of the word was by the Roman writer Celsus in the first century B.C. who referred specifically to the abdominal structure now called the greater omentum. The term has always been employed in an anatomical sense; there is no other known use.

Its derivation a mystery and Celsus left no clues. It may come from operimentum, Latin for the cloth used as a bed covering in ancient Rome much as the greater omentum covers the small intestine (the lesser omentum encloses the bile ducts and hepatic vessels). Others suggest it comes from opimus, Latin for plump, which would be an allusion to the fatty nature of the omenta. Or the term may come from the Latin omen, given the practice among some of the ancient soothsayers to prophesy using the entrails of sacrificed animals (and employing, as it were, a gut instinct as to what specific omens the visceral mess may signify).

The beer belly in men is due primarily to accumulation of greater omentum fat (with mesentery fat sometimes contributing). In women, abdominal fat is more likely to accumulate subcutaneously.

www.bbc.co.uk

2007-11-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

Lens, from the Latin, lens, the lentil bean.

The lens of the eye was so named by the Romans in the 1st century B.C. because of its resemblance to a lentil bean in shape and size.

The diameter of the human lens at birth is about 6 mm. By the time one is in their mid-sixties the lens will typically have reached a maximum diameter of around 9 mm. (The average diameter of a lentil is 6-7 mm.)

Lentils
www.all-creatures.org

2007-11-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

Malleus, Latin for hammer; the auditory ossicle that articulates with the the incus medially and the tympanic membrane laterally.

As the incus (Latin for anvil) does bear a striking resemblance to anvils going back to ancient Rome, you'd be justified in assuming that the naming of the malleus was inspired by the blacksmith's hammer. Indeed, the bone does have a long handle and a head that articulates with the incus, just as the hammer of a blacksmith should. However, it resembles not the hammer of the smithy but the hammer of the priest, used to stun oxen prior to sacrifice; butchers used it too. This tool was large and heavy, requiring two hands and not an obvious inspiration for the name of one of the smallest bones of the body. However, it had a distinctively round head like that of the ossicle and thus the bone was so designated as the malleus.

The shape of the sacrificial hammer may also explain the rather mysterious naming of the lateral malleolus and medial malleolus, the "little hammers" of the ankle that are so much larger the malleus of the ear. These rounded bony processes were probably given their name because they reminded Vaselius, who first used the term anatomically, of small versions of the large, round head of a malleus.

Other words derived from malleus include mallet and malleable, the latter in reference to metals such as gold that could be molded with hammer blows.

The malleus; adapted from Anatomy of the Human Body; Henry Gray. 1918

A sacrificial malleus from ancient Rome, from An Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary and Greek Lexicon, Anthony Rich. 1849

2007-10-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

Prepuce, the loose sheath surrounding the glans of the flaccid penis or clitoris.

The word first appears as praeputium in the Latin of ancient Rome; the derivation of praeputium is a matter of debate, possibly originating from the Latin prae (before) and the Greek posthe (penis). Or, more interestingly, it may be related the the Latin puteo ("I stink") in reference to the noisome accumulation of smegma, the sebaceous secretion that would collect under the prepuce of a habitually underwashed Roman male (notwithstanding the Roman baths, which not did not become an integral part of Romanic culture until the 2nd century BC, a full 300 years into the Roman Republic).

It has also been suggested that prepuce stems from praeputare ("to cut away", related to amputaere). However, the Romans used praeputium long before they became aware of the Jewish rite of circumcision.

The prepuce is referred to as the foreskin in males and the clitoral hood in females (although this latter term is not officially recognized by the Terminologia Anatomica). Its superior surface is skin and its inner surface is a mucosa; is this sense its organization is not unlike that of an eyelid.

During sexual excitement the prepuce retracts, exposing the glans. Given its sexual sensitivity, it can play role the tactile stimulation associated with sexual pleasure.

In a sexually mature man, the surface area of the intact prepuce averages about around 100 square centimeters, about that of a 3x5 index card.

Michelangelo's David in the Accademia Gallery, Florence, Italy.
Photo by Ussaro Etneo
www.flickr.com/photos/ussaro/252538573/

2007-10-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Malleolus, Latin for little hammer. Vesalius, in the 16th century, was the first to use the term for the rounded, bony processes on the distal fibula (the lateral malleolus) and tibia (the medial malleolus), often referred to as the "ankle bones" in casual conversation.

That Vaselius called these relatively large processes "little hammers" is a bit ironic, considering that one of the smallest bones in the body, the malleus of the middle ear, was given the non-diminutive Latin name for hammer (probably named by the Italian anatomist Alessandro Achillini, 1463-1512). See malleus for a discussion of Vaselius's inspiration for coining the term malleolus.

30% of ankle fractures involve the malleoli, usually the lateral.

emedicinehealth.com

2007-10-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

Orbit, as in eye-socket, comes from the Latin orbita, a rut or wheel-track, which in turn comes from orbis, circular as a wheel or disc. Thus is it not difficult to see how orbita became associated with revolving or rotating. The eye-socket came to be called the orbit in reference to the rotational movements of the eyeball within.

The first use of orbita in an anatomical sense came from a Latin translation of the Arabic texts of Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna), the 11th century Persian anatomist, by the 12th century Italian scholar Gerard of Cremona.

2007-10-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

Glenoid, from the the Greek glene, socket, eyeball, or mirror, and eidus, shape.

The etymology of glenoid, as in the glenoid cavity of the scapula, is murky at best. The earliest recorded use of glene, by Homer around the 7th century BC, was for mirror. By a few hundred years later, perhaps because of the mirror-like reflections that can be seen in the pupil, glene took on the meaning of eyeball (or, as some maintain, just the pupil). Still later, the meaning shifted to socket, perhaps because of the association of the eyeball with the orbit, or eye socket, of the skull.

But why is the socket on the scapula called the glenoid cavity? It has been suggested that the inspiration for this usage was the mirror-like glistening of the relatively flat articular cartilage on surface of the cavity, harking back to the original use of glene for mirror, which, along with its other meaning of socket, provided a term with definitions doubly appropriate to the structure. The only problem with this convenient story is a complete lack of evidence in its favor, but no better explanation has been offered.

Galen, in the second century AD, was the first to employ the word for the scapular structure, but he kept the logic for the coinage to himself.

Anatomically unrelated: The name of the protozoan euglena comes from eu- (true) and, for some reason, glena (mirror, eyeball, pupil, socket -- take your pick)

2007-10-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

Glomerulus, the spherical capillary tuft within the kidney, is the diminutive form of the Latin word for glomus, something wound into a ball, usually used in reference to yarn. These "little balls of yarn", of which there are about a million in a kidney with each serving a nephron, were discovered in 1666 by the preeminent Italian anatomist, Marcello Malpighi.

Malpighi also was the first to describe capillaries. His accurate observations of microscopic structure were amazing accomplishments given the primitive state of microscopy at the time.

Glomeruli were known as Malpighian bodies until 1788, when the term glomerulus was introduced by the Russian anatomist Alexander Schumlansky.

Non-anatomical words coming from glomus include conglomerate and agglomerate.

Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694)
complete-body.net

2007-10-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Due to the craziness surrounding the wildfires in San Diego County, this blog is on temporary hiatus. Once the smoke clears, the embers stop blowing (and I can return to my house!) it will be back.

2007-10-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

Endocrine, from the Greek endon, within, and krinein, to separate.

Friedrich Henle first recognised the presence of ductless glands in 1841, but "endocrine" was not used to describe these structures until the French physiologist Gustave-Edouard Laguesse coined the term in 1893.

Laguesse also named the islets of Langerhans, the pancreatic endocrine tissue that is the source of insulin and glucagon, among other hormones. They were so-called in honor of Paul Langerhans, the German who first described islet anatomy in 1869 (but did not suggest any functions).

The word hormone was coined in 1905 by British physiologist Ernest Starling (from the Greek word for “excite", hormao.)

Gustave-Edouard Laguesse
(1861-1927)
www.chru-lille.fr

2007-10-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Intestines, from the Latin intestina, guts, which is from intus, within. The singular form, intestinus, means internal, domestic, or civil, and was a term used in governmental discourse by the ancient Romans.

The word clandestine (concealed, working in secret) comes from intestinus plus clam, Latin for secret

Intestina, in the anatomical sense, first appeared in a work by the great Roman anatomist Celsus in the first century B.C. (his book, De Medicina, was one of the first medical texts to be printed following the invention of the printing press 1500 years later).

Celsus also was the first to employ acetabulum and patella, among many other words of anatomy.

Aurelius Cornelius Celsus 53 B.C. - 7 A.D
calder.med.miami.edu

2007-10-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

Alimentary is an adjective that comes from the the Latin word for food, alimentum. The alimentary canal, also known as the digestive tract, is a tube extending from mouth to anus that's about 20 feet long (and typically longer in cadavers because of a loss of smooth muscle tone that occurs after death)

The Terminologia Anatomica, with futility, prefers alimentary system instead of digestive system.

The Indo-European root of alimentum is al, "to grow", giving rise to the Latin alere, "to nuture", from which developed alma mater (nourishing mother), alumnus (one who has been nourished), alimony (money for nourishment), and adult (one who has grown up thanks to nourishment; the "ul" in adult is derived from "al").

2007-10-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Pectoral, from the Latin pectus, breast. It's been suggested that pectus in turn comes from the Latin word for comb, pecten, because the ribs look like the teeth of a comb.

Pecten is the source of pectineus, a muscle originating from the pubic bone, either because the muscle's parallel fascicles resemble a comb or because pecten was once the name of the pubic bone. (Why the pubic bone should call to mind a comb is anybody's guess: one suggestion is that pubic hair was somehow reminiscent of wispy tufts of hair left on a comb.)

The comb-like parallel ridges of myocardial tissue seen within the right atrium and both auricles of the heart is called the pectinate muscle.

2007-10-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

2007-10-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Ischium comes from iskhion, the Greek word for the socket which receives the head of the femur (now called the acetabulum). The word was sometimes used simply for the hip joint.

Galen, in the second century A.D., divided the hip bone (os coxa) into the three bones we know today: the ilium, pubis, and the iskhion, which was later Latinized to ischium. These three bones fuse into the single hip bone during puberty.

The ischium receives the weight of the body when we are sitting: Though "we sit on the ish” is a mnemonic, the proper pronunciation is "ISS-kee-um" in honor of its Greek forebearer iskhion.

The unfused ischium of a two-year-old (bottom right).
Also seen are the pubis (bottom left) and ilium.
www.boneclones.com

2007-10-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

Collagen comes from the Greek kolla (glue) and gennao (I produce). A "producer of glue" is quite an apt characterization of collagen, at least metaphorically, as this most ubiquitous of intercellular structural proteins plays a fundamental role in holding the body together. However, the term was coined (sometime in the mid 1800's) not because of its role in connective tissues, but because it is the main ingredient of glues formed from the boiling of animal skin, tendons, and ligaments. (The oldest such glues yet discovered, in various artifacts found near the Dead Sea, date to 6200 BC.)

The word collage, meaning an artistic collection of images, printed matter, and other substances glued to a board, also comes from kolla.

www.uq.edu.au/nanoworld/

2007-10-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Labrum comes directly from a word Latin for lip, labrum. The two ball-and-socket joints, the hip and the shoulder, each have a labrum: The glenoid labrum surrounds of the rim of the glenoid cavity in the shoulder and the acetabulular labrum surrounds the rim of the acetabulum in the hip. Both labia are composed of fibrocartilage and serve to deepen the sockets of their respective joints thus providing additional stability. The glenoid labrum plays the more important role of the two given the shallow form of the glenoid cavity as compared to the acetabulum.

Glenoid labrum tears are common athletic injuries , especially those sports involving overhand motions such as baseball and tennis.

Labium, directly from Latin word for the curved edge of a cup, labium, is used exclusively for the labium majus and labium minus (plural labia majora and labia minora) of the vulva.

The labrum, here labeled as the glenoid ligament. From Grey's Anatomy, 1909, via Wikipedia.com

2007-10-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Jugular comes from jugulum, a Latin word with at least three different meanings: the clavicle, the hollow in the neck just above the sternum, or the neck generally. Some dictionaries define the term as "relating to the throat", but "throat" in this context is in colloquial sense of "neck" as opposed to the anatomical throat, or pharynx, most of which is in the head behind the oral and nasal cavities.

The word comes from jugum, Latin for yoke, presumably because yokes are carried on the neck. Yoke is derived from jugum as well.

The jugular notch is the depression on the superior aspect of the manubrium at the hollow of the neck; it is also called the suprasternal notch. There are two other sets of jugular notches in the skeletal system, one on the temporal bones and the other on the occipital bone; together they form each half of the right and left jugular foramina of the skull, the point of origin of the jugular veins of the neck.

Using a yoke.
Modified from www.woodsurgeon.com

2007-10-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Nerve can be traced back all the way to the Sanskrit nauree, "string", circa 1000 BC, which gave rise to the Greek neuron, a term originally used by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC for various structures of a white, fibrous appearance, including tendons and ligaments ("sinews") as well as nerves; the word also was used for bowstring.

From neuron comes aponeurosis, first used by the Greeks for any broad, white, membrane-like tendon (apo is Greek for "derived from") and in use today for the same purpose. Examples include the epicranial aponeurosis and plantar aponeurosis.

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle restricted the use of neuron to the those structures we call nerves today. This was around the time the Greeks began to differentiate between the functions of nerves and sinews (they had come to realize that nerves were involved with muscle control, for example).

In one of the stranger quirks of anatomical etymology, Galen, in the 2nd century, came up with the word neuron, not from the Greek neuron, but from the Latin verb neuein, "to nod"; as he wrote: "nerves cause the limbs to nod and the joints to bend". Of course, he could have been simply enjoying a pun as well. However, it was the Greek neuron that gave way to the Latin nervus, which begat the French nerf, and finally the English "nerve".

Phrases such as "straining one's nerves" or "showing a lot of nerve" go back to the sinew notion of the word: strength, and from strength, courage.

Neuron, in the sense of a nerve cell, was coined in 1891 by the German anatomist Wilhelm Waldeyer, who first proposed the idea that the fundamental structure of nervous tissue was not that of a continuous web but rather discrete cellular units.

"Neuron" by Anna Vieth
www.annavdesigns.com

2007-10-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

Patella, directly from the Latin patella, a small dish or saucer. It is the diminutive of patera (from which we get pan). You'd think its anatomical namesake, the sesamoid bone of the quadriceps tendon also known as the kneecap, would thus shaped like a dish, but it is more triangular than round and has no concave surface. The term was introduced in its anatomical sense by Aurelius Celsus in the first century A.D.

True to its roots, an archaic name for the patella is kneepan.

A Roman patella. From the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, by Sir William Smith, 1876

Celsus was a veritable mint of anatomical terminology coining, or at least bringing to light, abdomen, anus, cartilage, hernia, humerus, radius, scrotum, tibia, tonsil, uterus, and vertebrae, among others (see the classic text Origin of Anatomical Terms by Henry Alan Skinner for additional information). Interestingly, Celsus was not an anatomist or even a physician but a writer who produced a compilation of Greek and Roman medical texts that became one of the most influential medical books ever written. It had been lost to history until its rediscovery in 1443 in Milan, Italy, and was part of a larger encyclopedia of general knowledge he wrote that appears gone for good.

2007-10-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hamstrings. Hamm is an Anglo-Saxon (i.e. Old English) word for the back of the thigh, which may be derived from an Old Teutonic word, ham, "crooked", that referred initially to the bend at the knee and later just the popliteal space behind the knee. The "strings" are the long, thin tendons of the muscles of the posterior thigh, specifically the semitendinosus and semimembranosus medially, and the lateral biceps femoris. The tendons can be easily felt on either side of the popliteal fossa (the "knee pit").

The "hamstrings" specifically refer to the tendons of the posterior thigh muscles but the practical usage of the word is in reference to the muscles as well.

The ham of the dinner table is typically the semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris of the pig, but anterior thigh and gluteal muscles may be present as well.

2007-10-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

Liver, from the Anglo-Saxon word for liver, lifer. It seems logical that the etymology of the word is somehow related to "life" but no one knows for certain. It is interesting to note that the German word for liver is die Leber, and the German verb leben is "to live".

Hepar, Greek for liver, is the source of the combining form seen in words such as hepatic, hepatitis, and heparin (which was first isolated from the liver cells of dogs).

The Latin word for liver, jecur, doesn't show up anywhere in anatomy or medicine, or in any of the Romance languages. Strangely, the Spanish, French, and Italian words for liver (higato, foie, and fegato respectively) all stem from the Latin word ficatum, "stuffed with figs", whose link with the liver is through an ancient Roman dinner specialty: jecur ficatum: liver and figs.

It was long believed that the liver was source of the body's blood and lymph; when this was shown not to be true, the organ lost favor amongst anatomists and physiologists. Its stature was revived in the 19th century by the father of homeostatic theory, the French physiologist Claude Bernard, who recognized many of the organs vital functions; indeed we now know of at least 50 ways, as Paul Simon almost sang, to love your liver.

2007-10-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Cricoid comes from the Greek krikos (finger-ring) and -oedes (shape). The term was coined by the Romans in the first century.

It is almost universally stated that the cricoid cartilage, the most inferior component of the larynx, is so-named because of it's similarity to a signet ring (a ring with an engraved seal). However, the cartilage more closely resembles, and is more likely named after, the thumb-ring of an archer. Indeed, Vesalius included a drawing of such a ring when describing the cricoid in his Fabrica

A Roman signet ring
www.ketteringroots.co.uk/projects/rings2.htm

Posterior view of the cricoid cartilage
sprojects.mmi.mcgill.ca/larynx/notes/anat/nacart2.htm

Drawing of a Turkish archer's thumb ring
from Andreas Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543

An ancient Roman archer's thumb ring
www.ancientresource.com

2007-09-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Clitoris is derived from the Greek word for clitoris, kleitoris, which in turn comes from kleio (to close, as with a door or latch), perhaps in reference to those portions of the labia minora that enclose the clitoris, or to the clitoris as a metaphorical gateway to the vagina.

Some have suggested that clitoris may be derived from the Greek verb for tickle, kleitorizein (the German word for clitoris is der Kitzler, the tickler). However, kleitorizein may be dervied from Kitzler (kleitorizein also means "to touch the clitoris").

Gabriele Falloppio (of Fallopian tube fame) was the first to systematically describe the external anatomy of the clitoris back in the 16th century.

The clitoris is rarely represented in its entirely in textbook diagrams and anatomical models. The average length of the adult clitoris from the visible glans to the embedded ends of the crura (which attach to the bones of the pelvic girdle) is about 4".

The clitoris surrounding the penis during intercourse.
The outer layers of the woman's skin and fat are not shown and the
penis is represented as a feature-less cross-section. The ascending
portion of the clitoral shaft can be seen above the glans (the glans is the
portion usually visible). The shaft bends posteriorly at its apex
and divides into the two "legs" (crura ) which encircle the vaginal opening
and the penis.
Drawing by Robert Latou Dickinson, in Human Sex Anatomy, 1949.

Lateral view of the clitoris
This diagram is from a US college website, but I lost the link.
If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

2007-09-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Ileum, from the Greek word for twisted, elios. Its a matter of conjecture why only the last 2/3s of the small intestine should be called "twisted" (in the sense of meadering) even though the initial 1/3, the jejunum, is worthy of the distinction as well.

It has been suggested that the word may stem from the use of elios by ancient Greeks for pathologies such as torsion, obstructions, or paralysis that are somewhat more common in the more distal portions of the small intestine .

Ileus as a term for intestinal paralysis was first used by Hippocrates in the 5th century B.C.

The ilium of the pelvic girdle didn't make its appearance in anatomy until Vesalius named it in the 16th century. The ancient Romans used the word for the soft areas of the abdomen, such as the flank or belly, and not the bone; in fact it may have come from ilia, the Latin word for soft (ilia was used by the Greeks for the female external genitalia). Others have suggested it comes from os ilei, "the bone the ileum lies against".

2007-09-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Coronary, from the Latin corona, garland, wreath, or crown. Corona is also Latin for boundary.

When viewed from above, it can be seen that the right and left coronary arteries (more specifically, the right coronary and circumflex branch of the the left coronary) encircle the heart like a crown.

The coronal suture of the skull, linking the frontal bone to the parietals, is arranged vertically instead of encircling the cranium. It is very roughly reminiscent of the style favored by Roman emperors for the wearing of a garland, or corona , i.e., high on the forehead, and this has been suggested as the inspiration of suture's name.

However, the another Latin meaning of corona is a boundary such as the edge of a field and, perhaps from this definition, the anterior edge of the hair on the head. Especially in one with a receding hairline, the position of the coronal suture and the pattern of hair growth closely match, and perhaps from this relationship came the name of the suture Others suggest the term simply is in reference to the edge of the frontal bone.

In any event, corona in an anatomical sense does not appear in any extant Roman writings. It first makes its appearance around the 10th century in Latin translations of Arabic anatomical texts.

A coronal section initially referred to a cut made along the coronal suture. The term has since become generalized to mean any such cut that separates anterior and posterior regions.

Some non-anatomic words derived from the Latin corona include coronation and coroner (the original definition of the latter word was "an officer appointed by the crown").


A transverse section through a plane containing the heart valves. The circumflex artery curves around the mitral valve on the left, and on the opposite side, the right coronary artery curves around the tricuspid, with both vessels almost touching posteriorly and thus completing the crown. radiologynotes.servehttp.com	Julius Caesar wearing a corona. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

2007-09-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Abducens: cranial nerve number six; carries somatic motor impulses to the lateral rectus muscle on the lateral side of the eyeball. Also known as the abducent nerve.

From the Latin ab (away) and ducere (to lead). Named for the consequences of its action: when the nerve stimulates the lateral rectus to contract, the eyeball is abducted (i.e., turned away from the midline).

The lateral rectus muscle was once known musculus amatorius ("love muscle") because of its action in producing the alluring sidelong glances of lovers (though the contralateral medial rectus muscle is also used in this look, it's the eye that's moving laterally that gets all the attention.)

"ASKANCE"
Original Oil by Don Huebner
www.artbydonhuebner.com

2007-09-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Androgen is from the Greek andros (a man), and genao (I produce). The androgens include a number of hormones, testosterone being the most predominant.

The dramatic role that androgens play in male sexual development can be deduced by observing those with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS). These individuals have the XY genotype and thus would be males were it not for the fact that they lack all androgen receptors on their cells. Consequently, in the absence of androgen stimulation, those with CAIS are females, externally appearing as normal girls or women and typically choosing a female gender identity. Internally they have no uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries, and have testes in the abdomen.

Cindy Stone has complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. She is shown here at age eight and as an adult. Her thoughts about the condition, along with others with disorders of sexual development (DSDs), can be read at www.dsdguidelines.org/htdocs/parents/adults_memories.html

2007-09-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

Adipose is derived from adeps, the Latin word for grease, lard, or animal fat (see abdomen). The first recorded English use of adipose was in the mid-18th century. It is not known who coined the term.

Adeps had already entered the English language in the 17th century, meaning fat generally, but also referring specifically to the internal abdominal fat of the hog, usually that of the mesenteries, omentum or renal adipose tissue, that had been removed and purified for use in the preparation of skin ointments.

Other words derived from adeps (from http://www.wordinfo.info):

adipocere: A grayish fatty substance generated on or in dead bodies that were buried in moist places or submerged in water. It can persists for centuries (synonyms: grave wax, lipocere).
adipescent: Becoming fatty
adipophobia: An abnormal fear of being too fat
adipate: To feed fat.

"More to Love"
A painting of adipose tissue
by Odra Noel.
http://www.odranoel.eu/

2007-09-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

The carotid artery gets its name from the Greek karos, which means "deep sleep or stupor". The term was already being taught in Roman medical schools early in the first century A.D., and was quite possibly used by the Greeks 300 hundred years earlier as it was Aristotle (384-322 BCE) who first noted that pressure on the both carotid arteries could induce a stupor.

Galen claimed, from the results of his experiments, that carotid pressure did not produce any kind of stupor. However, he probably was basing his observations on the response of ruminants which have a very effective collateral blood supply to the brain through a number of vertebral vessels; consequently they don't show a loss of consciousness even with prolonged pressure applied to the carotids.

In humans, the "blood choke" (carotid restraint) in which both carotids are compressed typically leads to unconsciousness in around 10 seconds. Once pressure is removed, consciousness is regained in 10-20 seconds

Carotid restraint
www.answers.com

2007-09-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

Fontanelle (also fontanel), from fontanella, from the Italian word for little spring or fountain: any of the six soft, membranous regions in the the cranium of an infant or fetus where bone tissue formation has yet to take place. The word was coined in Italy in the 13th century.

The term originally referred only to the anterior fontanelle, located on the top of the skull between the parietal bones. It is the largest and the last fontanelle to disappear, usually by the 24th month; in casual usage, it is referred to as the soft spot.

The fontanelles seem unrelated to either fountains or springs and three suggestions, all in reference to the anterior fontaenlle, have been offered to explain the link. In order of decreasing plausibility:

The natural spring explanation: the ground at the site of a spring often has a slight hollow or indentation associated with it, as may the anterior fontanelle.

The surgical explanation: in the 13th century a blood-letting procedure was developed for the treatment of brain and eye disorders in newborns. The technique involved creating a small opening in the anterior fontanelle so that blood, carrying supposed poisons, could flow out and effect a cure. The welling blood could have reminded one of a fountain.v

The pulsation explanation: a pulse can be felt in the anterior fontanelle, perhaps reminding one of the pulsating flow typically seen in fountains with a vertical water spout. Such fountains would have been a common site in 13th century Italy.

The anterior fontanelle in a newborn
commons.wikimedia.org

2007-09-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

Biceps comes from the Latin words bis (twice) and caput (head). The biceps brachii is a muscle with two "heads" (or origins).

Biceps is both singular and plural, although about a quarter the usage on the Internet is in the pseudo-singular form of "bicep". (To be strictly correct, the plural of biceps is bicipites, used only by those who wish to flaunt their learning to the of point annoyance).

The biceps brachii was named in 1734 by the German anatomist Bernhard Weiss (who went by the Latinized name of Albinus).

Albinus (1697-1770)
clendening.kumc.edu

2007-09-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Abdomen, directly from the Latin abdomen, belly. Obscure origins, but most probably came from either of the latin words abdere (conceal) or adeps (fat)

The term was originally applied to the bellies of pregnant pigs, whose milk-laden mammary glands were eaten as delicacies in ancient Greece. Around 60 B.C., Cicero and the Greek comedy writers began using the word as a humorous insult to pot-bellied men. It was the Greek philosopher Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) who first used the term in the anatomical sense familiar today.

Related usage: rectus abdominis. If well-defined, the rectus abdominis is colloquially called a "six-pack." (Note: often misspelled as “rectus abdominus”; a mnemonic for the correct spelling: i have a six-pack, u don't)

Pliny the Elder
www.crystalinks.com

2007-09-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

Obturator comes from the Latin obturare, to close up. The obturator foramen of the os coxa, completely covered by a membrane, was named by the great French surgeon Ambroise Paré in 1550,

The obturator nerve is the only nerve with the name of a foramen that does not also pass through said foramen. It has been suggested the nerve was so-called because it supplies the adductor muscles of the thigh and thus is required to close the legs.

Also derived from obturare: obstruct.

Ambroise Pare, 1510-1590
From the Truman G. Blocker History of Medicine Collection, University of Texas

2007-09-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

Lymph, from the Latin lympha for "clear spring water". The Latin term can be traced back to the Greek Nymphe (with "L" replacing the "N" for reasons unknown). Nymphe were Greek goddesses of things pastoral, including pristine lakes and springs.

Greek anatomists such as Aristotle and Herophilus noted the existence of what are now called lymphatic vessels, but considered them simply as veins that carried water. Galen said these vessels didn't exist and, given his inexplicable power, such was the dogma for over 1400 years.

Spurred on with the discovery of lacteals by Gaspara Aselli in 1622, the lymphatic system was finally described by a number of anatomists during the mid to late 1600s. Thomas Bartholin, around 1660, was the first to use the term vasa lymphatic (lymphatic vessels), in reference to the watery fluid within (Bartholin's grandson, Kaspar, was the first to describe the greater vestibular glands of the female reproductive system, the erstwhile Barthonlin's glands).

In spite of the successes in illuminating its anatomy, it wasn't until the 1820s that the lymphatic system was understood not to be the general route of absorption, through the lacteals, of food and water.

Thomas Bartholin, 1616-1680
Public domain image

2007-09-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hymen comes from the Greek hyalos, membrane. The Greeks used the term for any type of anatomical membrane, including the peritoneum, pericardium, and meninges.

Vesalius, in the 16th century, was the first to use hymen specifically for the membrane of the vaginal orifice, perhaps inspired by the name of the Greek god of marriage, Hymen.

Cupid Rekindling the Torch of Hymen. A statue by the Scottish sculptor George Rennie (1802-1860); Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

2007-09-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

Appendix comes from the Latin appendere, meaning to "hang from". The most familiar appendix in the body is the vermiform ("worm-like") appendix which is attached to the the cecum of the large intestine. It contains lymphatic tissue and thus plays a role in immune function, albeit a very minor one.

The other appendices recognized by the Terminologia Anatomica (and often not present): the fibrous appendix of the liver, the appendix of the testis (the hydatid of Morgani), and the appendix of the epididymis, the latter two being remnants of the and müllerian and mesonephric ducts respectively..

In only 30 percent of us does the vermiform appendix actually hang down from the cecum as is typically seen in diagrams and models; in the remaining 70% of the population it runs upward alongside the cecum and ascending colon. As is typical for structures without important functions, is quite variable in structure with lengths that usually vary from ¼ to over nine inches (with one record case of 13 inches). Check out the online Illustrated Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation for additional details.

The earliest known drawing of the human appendix ("n"), done by Leonardo De Vinci around 1505. From O'Mally and Saunders 1952, Leonardo da Vinci on the human body

2007-09-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Sternum is a word that can be traced back to a couple of Greek terms for breast: sternon, a poetic designation for the breast of a man (but not that of a woman) and stethos, an anatomical term for either the breast of a man or woman (and from which comes stethoscope).

Galen, in second century Rome, was the first to use sternon in the anatomical sense of breast bone; the word transformed into sternum sometime after the fall of the Roman empire in the 6th century. However, os pectoris was the preferred Latin term for well over 1500 years, from the time of ancient Rome through the Renaissance, and was used by Vesalius in the Fabrica. Sternum didn't show up in English until the 17th century and os pectoris was still appearing in English medical dictionaries late into the 19th century.

The components of the sternum are rich in sword-related etymologies. See manubrium for details.

The bone exhibits a little-known sexual dimorphism: in males the body is typically more than twice the length of the manubrium; in females it is usually less than twice the length. It also shows a number of common structural variations.

Variations in sternum structure.
From The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation. In a 2006 study done in Istanbul, Turkey, X-ray examination of 1000 individuals with otherwise normal sternums showed 4% with suprasternal bones, 4.5% with a foramen in the body, 27% with a xiphoid foramen, and 27% with a bifid xiphoid process.

2007-09-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

Axon comes directly from axon, the Greek word for axle or axis.

In 1845, the Swiss physiologist and comparative anatomist Rudolph Albert von Kölliker (1817-1905) provided the first definitive proof that axons were part of the neuron. 51 years later, in 1898, von Kölliker proposed that these fibers, which form the long axis of the neuron and had come to be called "axis-cylinders", be referred to as "axons" instead. Around the same time, some began using axon as an alternative name for the notocord, but as von Kölliker's axon gained in popularity, axon-as-notocord faded from use.

www.clendening.kumc.edu

2007-09-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Capillary comes from the Latin capillus which means "hair of the head" (caput, head, plus pilus, a hair). In spite of its etymology, an average capillary is a hollow tube about 8 microns in diameter, about 1/10 that of a typical human hair.

Capillaries were first described in 1661 by the renowned Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi while observing frog lungs under a microscope; Malphghi was one of the first to use the microscope, invented in the Netherlands a generation earlier, for biological observations.

A human adult has over 60,000 miles of capillaries with a total surface area of 600-1000 square meters, an area equal to 2-3 tennis courts

The total volume of the capillaries is around 4-5 liters, the same as the blood volume; obviously, at any given time, a significant number are empty.

Malpighi's original drawing of frog lung capillaries, modified from Fishman and Richards (1964)

2007-09-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Arbor vitae, Latin for "tree of life", is used to describe the branching pattern of white matter seen in sagittal sections of the cerebellum. This is not because the branchings suggest a tree or represent some kind of life-sustaining function in the cerebellum, but rather because of its resemblance to the foliage of the arborvitae, a group of ornamental plants native to East Asia and North America.

The term was coined in the late 17th or early 18th century by Jacob Winslow, the great Danish anatomist. Winslow did much of his work in Paris and presumably encountered in it Parisian gardens. Most likely he saw Thuja occidentalis, or Eastern Arborvitae (often misidentified as cedar), which was the first North American plant introduced into Europe.

The tree was brought back from the new world in 1534 by French explorers who had learned from indigenous people along the St. Lawrence River that a boiled concoction made from its greenery cured scurvy. It was thus named “l’arbor de vie” by the King Francis I and planted in medicinal plant gardens.

Winslow also named the sympathetic chain and was the first to call the ring of pigment surrounding the pupil the "iris".


Thuja occidentalis www.preservedgardens.com

2007-09-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

Cilium was the Latin word used by the ancient Romans for eyelid.

Though the word seemed to die off with the demise of Latin, anatomist in the 17th century started using the term again, not for eyelids however, but for eyelashes.

Meanwhile, also in the 17th century, the Danish biologist Antony van Leeuwenhoek turned his primitive magnifying lenses to pond water and discovered the microscopic world of biology. He was the first to describe, among many other things, bacteria, sperm cells, red blood cells, and protists, and on some of the protists, small hair-like structures.

In the late 18th century the cellular "hairs" came to called "cilia" given their resemblance, under the microscope, to eyelashes.

Supercilium is Latin for eyebrows and the English word "supercilious" (sneering and arrogant) comes from the arched-eyebrow look that often accompanies those who show such traits.

cnn.com

2007-08-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

Concha (singular, rhymes with "tonka"; the plural, conchae, rhymes with "donkey") comes directly from the Latin word for shell, concha. The word was first used in human anatomy by the Greeks and Romans for various concavities reminiscent of the inside of an oyster shell. An example that survives is the concha of the external ear.

The most common use of term today is for the three pairs of turbinates in the nasal cavity, the superior, middle, and inferior nasal conchae. This usage was coined by Julius Casserius Placentinus, a 16th century Italian anatomist at the University of Padua who was inspired, not by Mediterranean oysters, but by the unusual (for Europeans) Caribbean conch shells brought back by Italian explorers of the new world. The nasal turbinates have a scrolled appearance somewhat like a conch.

An oyster opened up.
www.fisheries.vims.edu

The concha of the external ear.
Grey's Anatomy via Wikipedia

West Indian Fighting Conch (Strombus pugilis).
www.gastropods.com

2007-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

Bursa comes straight from the medieval Latin bursa (purse or bag) which in turn is directly from the Greek bursa (wineskin). As wineskins were produced from animal hides, bursa can ultimately trace its ancestry to the Greek word for ox, bovis, which also gives us "bovine".

During Roman times, bursa was used only as a proper name.

True to its Latin origins, a bursar is one who handles the "purse".

Bursa was first used in its anatomical sense by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (Weiss) in 1734, who coined the term "mucous bursae" for the lubricating sacs at joints. "Mucous" was dropped with the subsequent characterization of synovial fluid.

A painting on an ancient Greek vase: a Satyros is depicted holding a rhyton (drinking horn) and bursa (wineskin). From the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine arts. Image at www.theoi.com/Gallery/T60.11.html

2007-08-28T23:55:00.000-07:00

Histology, from the Greek word histos, cloth or woven material, and logos, study.

The father of modern histology and pathology is Marie F.X. Bichat, the brilliant French anatomist and physiologist. Although he characterized 21 different tissue types, most never described before, he chose to work sans microscope.

Bichat was one of the first to postulate that disease struck at the tissue and not the organ level of organization. He died of tuberculosis in 1802, just 31 years old, and is one of only 72 French scientists, engineers, or mathematicians to have his name engraved on the Eiffel Tower.

The word histology was coined in 1819 by one A. Mayer, a German anatomist, perhaps inspired by Bichat's naked-eye characterizations of various tissues as akin to cloth ("le tissu" in French); as noted above, the Greek word for cloth is histos.

Marie François Xavier Bichat 1771-1802
The father of modern histology and pathology
clendening.kumc.edu

2007-08-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

Mons, Latin for mountain or mound. It's only use in anatomy is in mons pubis ("pubic mound"), the raised, fatty pad that develops at puberty in females. Covering the hard symphysis pubis and pubic arch, it functions as a cushion during missionary-position sexual intercourse, with additional protection for the skin provided by a covering of pubic hair. The alternative term of mons veneris, ("Venus's mound", named after the Roman goddess of love) is no longer commonly used.

The male equivalent was humbly named the mons jovis (after Jove, aka Jupiter, the supreme Roman god). Perhaps because the male's very slight elevation is not worthy of a top-dog deity, the term has disappeared.

Left lateral view of the mons pubis.
Adapted from www.br.wikipedia.org

Other terms ultimately derived from mons include montane (existing in a mountain area) and Montana.

2007-08-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Heart comes from the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word for heart, herte. It is typical that basic body part words used in everyday English do not have Latin or Greek roots.

That the heart is linked to emotions, though long recognized as a metaphorical relationship, is a notion shared by most if not all cultures, evident when comparing different languages. Cordial is "showing heartfelt friendliness" and is derived from cor, the Latin word for heart; a cordial welcome is a hearty welcome. Concord, in agreement, means "with the heart", and of course related to accord. Then there's discord, "apart from the heart" and its no surprise that courage also stems from cor.

Strangely, the word coronary is not related to cor. The word comes from the Latin corona, meaning garland, wreath, or crown.

It is thought by linguists that herte, cor, and kardia, the Greek word for heart, all are descendant from a Proto-Indo-European word used some 6000 years ago: kerd.

A peculiar phrase that has come down through the ages is the "cockles of one's heart". The common explanation for the linkage of these two seemingly disparate words is that cockle is just a play on the first half of the medieval Latin term for the heart's ventricles, cochlea cordis, (heart shell), and has nothing to do the with the cockle, a common edible European bivalve. However, one wonders if the etymologists have ever seen the meat of this mollusk, which does bear a resemblance to the opened-up ventricles of a mammalian heart.


The meat of the European cockle ministry-of-information.co.uk			The ventricles of a sheep heart faculty.washington.edu/kepete

2007-08-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

Anatomical snuff box, also known as the radial fossa: a triangular depression on the dorsal-lateral aspect of the hand just distal to the wrist joint. The lateral boundary is formed by the parallel tendons of the extensor pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus, and the medial boundary by the extensor pollicis. Thus, since all three tendons can be easily palpated when these muscles contract, the fossa is best seen and felt when one extends and abducts the thumb.

The scaphoid and trapezium bones form the floor and the styloid process of the radius forms the proximal border. The radial artery runs deep to the snuff box.

The name refers to the use of this area for holding and then snorting snuff, a powdered tobacco concoction.

www.athleticadvisor.com

Anatomical snuff box in action
www.tabak-heinrich.de

2007-08-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Cubital, from the Latin cubitus, elbow; also: the distance from the elbow to the fingertips (a "cubit"), an ancient unit of measurement used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, among others. Depending on the time and place, it ranged between 18 and 25 inches, give or take.

Cubitus comes from cubo, Latin for "I lie down", supposedly because the ancient Romans were in the habit of resting on the forearm during meals.

Illustration by Gilbert Ford
www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0905web/glutton2.html

2007-08-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

Arachnoid, spider-like, derives from the Greek words for "spider" (arachne) and "like" (eidos). In anatomy, however, the word does not mean "like a spider" but rather "like a spider's web". The arachnoid membrane, the middle of the three membranes that envelope the brain and spinal cord, has a network of exceedingly fine filaments attached to its undersurface (traversing the sub-arachnoid space) that resembles the web of a spider.

The word ultimately goes to back to Arachne, a mythological maiden from Lydia (now western Turkey), who had the audacity to challenge the goddess Athene to a weaving contest. As a result of her brashness, she was killed by Athene (another version of the story has Arachne killing herself) and brought back to life as a spider, forever weaving and forever serving as a warning that mere mortals were not to challenge the immortal gods.

www.latein-pagina.de

2007-08-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

Lambdoid, from the Greek letter lambda (λ, lower case; Λ, uppercase); equivalent in sound to the "L" in English.

Something that is lambdoid in appearance typically approximates the shape of the upper case lambda, though the only use of the term in anatomy is for the inverted-U shaped lambdoid suture of the skull between the parietal and occipital bones. It was named by Galen in the 2nd century A.D.

Posterior view of skull.
Photo by C. Carpenter

"The lambda" is name given to the point of junction of the lambdoid and sagittal sutures.

2007-08-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Buccinator, the muscle of the cheek; derived from buccina, Latin for trumpet, which in turn comes from bucca, cheek. Contraction of the muscle generates pressure when playing trumpets and other such instruments, though the muscle is not required to do so as the technique of the great jazz trumpeter Dizzie Gillepsie attests.

More commonly, the muscle helps to keep food between the teeth.

http://parvenu.nl

2007-08-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

Amygdala, Greek for almond. A mass of gray matter located within the temporal lobe of the cerebrum; It has the shape and approximate size of an almond kernel.

Almonds
www.mypyramid.gov

McLeod, M. (2000). Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper. Crimelibrary.com/serial/whitman/index.htm

2007-08-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Adam’s apple: The anterior lump in the neck, formed by the laryngeal prominence of the thyroid cartilage, the largest cartilage of the larynx.

It is not uncommon for a woman to have an Adam's apple larger than a man.

sandrabullock.com

2007-08-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

Gubernaculum comes directly from Latin gubernaculum, helm or rudder, which is derived from the verb gubernare, to steer.

The port gubernaculum of an ancient Greek boat. The helmsman (yes, the gubernator) is controlling the starboard one as well.
from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd Edition by Anthony Rich. 1874

The gubernacula are the cords of connective tissue once thought to actively guide the descent of the fetal testes from the posterior abdominal wall into the scrotum during the last months of development. Although they are often described as fibrous cords with the implication of being tough supporting structures, they are in fact composed of soft mesenchymal tissue and probably "govern" the testicular descent passively by providing paths of least resistance (although in mice there is evidence that components the cords may contract in response to hormonal stimulation towards the end of the descent, hastening the entry of the testes into the scrotal sac).

The ovaries descend in the female as well, stopping in the pelvic cavity, and a homologous gubernaculum is also present. The more superior portion of the female gubernaculum develops into the ovary's suspensory ligament, and the inferior part, the ovarian ligament, which attaches the ovary to the uterus, and, a bit ironically, prevents further descent. The gubernaculum in the male turns into the gubernaculum testis, a ligament that attaches the testis to the floor of the scrotum.

Also derived from gubernare are the words gubernatorial and governor.

2007-08-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

Atlas, the first cervical vertebra and the bone the skull rests upon. It is named after Atlas, the Greek god sentenced by Zeus to hold the earth on his shoulders, who in turn was named from the Greek atlao, "I endure".

The term was not used in anatomy until the era of Vesalius in the 16th century.

A Roman copy, in marble, of a Greek sculpture of Atlas, ca. 2nd century A.D.; on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy. Interestingly, the globe is not the earth but the oldest known example of a celestial sphere (a globe that shows the constellations). The sculpture is known as the Farnese Atlas.

2007-08-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Pineal gland (also called the pineal body), from the Latin for pine cone, pinea; so named because of its shape.

The human pineal gland, 5-9 mm in length; drawing modified from www.hormone.org

Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, physiologist and mathematician, believed the pineal to be the seat of the "rational soul", impressed as he was with the gland's central location in the brain (indeed, it is one of few brain structures that does not come in bilateral pairs or equal left and right halves). 1,400 years earlier, the Greek physician Galen thought it served as a valve to regulate the release of thoughts from storage sites in the brain, which he assumed to be the ventricles. It's actual, less glamorous function is as a neuroendocrine source of the hormone melatonin.

Pineals can be easy to spot on radiographs as they often contain opaque deposits of "brain sand" composed of calcium phosphate and other salts. The material accumulates with age; significance unknown.

The piñata, commonly seen at Mexican birthday parties and other celebrations, also gets its name from the Latin pinea, albeit in a round-about way. Literally piñata means "pot", from the Italian pignatta, which in turn comes from the Italian word for pine cone, pigna, a direct descendant of pinea.

2007-08-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

Ganglion, from the Greek gagglion, tumor or swelling. Hippocrates, in the 5th century B.C., used the term for any growth that could be felt beneath the skin. This use continues today, but only for the "ganglion cysts" of tendons or joint capsules most frequently seen at the wrist.

A ganglion cyst
www.centraljerseyhand.co

The Roman physician Galen, in the 2nd century, used the term initially for abnormal swellings associated with nerves but ultimately for normal "swellings" of nervous system structures as well, the sympathetic ganglia in particular.

1700 years later, in the 19th century, it was determined that the sympathetic ganglia were composed of large collections of neuron cell bodies, and the definition of ganglia soon expanded to include all such structures outside the brain and spinal cord, including the prevertebral sympathetic ganglia, numerous parasympathetic ganglia, and the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal nerves.

Collections of neuron cell bodies within the central nervous are usually called nuclei and not ganglia, though the use of the term persists in the basal ganglia of the cerebrum.

Other than for the ganglion cysts, the term is no longer used for abnormalities.

2007-08-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hippocampus, the half horse/half fish sea creature of Greek mythology that pulled Poseidon's chariot; from hippo, horse and kampos, monster.

The Hippocampus. Graphic published in European Neurology 2005;53:171-178

Anatomically the hippocampus is a limbic system structure deep in temporal lobe of the cerebrum; it is crucial for the processing of long-term memory. The sinuous arrangement of its gray and white matter, when seen in a frontal section, is suggestive of the curves of the Hippocampus's tail, inspiring Giulio Cesare Aranzio, an eminent Italian anatomist of the 16th century, to give it the name.

The hippocampus is one of the first structures to show degenerative changes in Alzheimer's disease.

Hippocampus is also the genus name of the fish known as the seahorse.

Hippocampus in a frontal section:
the dentate gyrus is the
head, the subiculum is the tail.
Click here for a larger view
From Frank Gaillard Designs