Anatomy Words

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:41:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:12:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:45:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:08:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:54:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:36:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:39:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:47:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:21:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:45:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:52:00 +0000

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

Happy holidays everyone!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:52:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:00:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:36:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:39:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:33:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:52:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:31:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:24:00 +0000

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".

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:53:00 +0000

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).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:24:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:07:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:09:00 +0000

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.