BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom...

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BONE ·NAMES THE KANSAS SCHOOL NATURALIST VOL. 38 EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY 2003 REPRINT OF No. 1 EMPORIA, KANSAS FEBRUARY 1992 ISSUE

Transcript of BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom...

Page 1: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

BONE middotNAMES

THE KANSAS SCHOOL NATURALIST VOL 38 EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY 2003 REPRINT OF No 1 EMPORIA KANSAS FEBRUARY 1992 ISSUE

The Kansas School Naturalist ISSN 0022-877X Published by EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY Prepared and Issued by THE DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Ediror JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK Edirorial Committee DAVID EDDSTOM EDDY GAYLEN NEUFELD Editors Emeritus ROBERT BOLES JOHN BREUKELMAN ROBERT F CLARKE Typist NANCY GULICK Circulation and Mailing ROGER FERGUSON Circulation (this issue) 5200 Primed by ESU Priming Services

The lVlnsas School Naturalist is sent free of charge and upon request ro teachers school adminisrrarors public and school librarians youth leaders conservationists and others imerested in natural history and nature education Inshyprim back issues are sent free as long as supply lasts Out-of-prim back issues are sem for one dollar photocopy and postagehandling charge per issue A back issue list is sent free upon request The Kamas School Naturalist is sent by third class mail to all US zipcodes first class to Mexico and Canada and surface mail overseas Overseas subscribers who wish to receive it by airmail should remit US $500 per year airmail and handling The Kansas School Naturalist is published by Emporia State University Emporia Kansas Third class postage paid at Emporia Kansas Address all correspondence to Kansas School Naturalist Department of Biological Sciences Box 4050 Emporia State University Emporia KS 66801-5087 Opinions and perspectives expressed are those of the authors andor editor and do not reflect the official position or endorsement of ESU

Publication and distribution of this issue of the Kansas School Naturalist was partially underwritten by comributions from readers like you The Kansas School Naturalist is indexed in Wildlife ReviewFisheries Review

EDITORIAL NOTE Responding to the Fact that introducroty biology textbooks intorduce more new terms than do first-year language classes some misguided educators are promoting a drastic reduction in what they call unnecessary jargon In this issue Dr Rowe elaborates the rich origins and complex meanings that are lost when inaccurate common names are substituted This language is nOt just for physicians but for citizens who will be patients who will sit on juries judging medical practices who will vote on health-related laws and who individually moniror their own health and collectively determine our health insurance rates The precise use of words is not just a symptom of an educated person it is part and parcel of operating as a healthy educated person Dr Rowes enjoyable essay weaves this terminology into everyday life

Back issues and an index to the Kansas School of NatUralist are available online at wwwemporiaedulksn

The Kansas School Naturalist is listed in Ulrichs International Periodicals Directory indexed in Wildlife ReviewFisheries Review and appropriate issues are indexed in the Zoological Record Some issues are available in Spanish and Chinese text

Dr Edward Rowe was a professor of Biology at Emporia State University and taught human anatomy and physiology as well as biomedical terminology an elective course stUdying Latin and Greek root words

COVER Vesalius illustrated skeletons in poses ro best portray their features This fromal view is a classic recognized by medical and anatomy students The shovel handle does not align with the blade and is a stage prop

3

BONE NAMES by

Edward Rowe

The first time we encounter the exotic-sounding technical names for bones most of us simply accept the standard terms given in our textbooks We dont mind the extra effort of learning them because its mildly exciting to be initiated into the language used by physicians Only later do we begin to learn the subject of this issue of the Naturalist the Greek and Latin origins of these terms

The technical bone terms used here are now standardized internationally but this obviously was not always the case Our modern anatomical terminology got its start in the mid-1500s when a few brilliant innovators dared to defy the authorities who opposed dissection of human bodies and founded modern scientific anatomy (The very word anatomy refers to the act of dissection it comes from Greek and Latin roots tom to cut and ana up) There was an early if not very advanced anatomical tradition in Greek and Roman times We know about this classical anatomy from its most brilliant contributor Galen who lived most of his life in Second Century Rome and wrote 400 treatises on medicine philosophy and religion Progress in anatomy was agonizingly slow in Europe as it passed through its dark ages and even Galens contributions would probably have been lost if they hadnt been preserved by scholars in Arab lands By the early 1500s anatomy was being taught in some but by no

means all European medical schools Where anatomy was taught the professors limited themselves to presenting Galens SUrvIVIng book knowledge Where anatomy classes used dissections (and they did so only to demonstrate Galens correctness) neither the professor nor the medical students dirtied their hands with the actual dissections that was a lower-class job delegated to uneducated servants In the mid-1500s a strong personality Andreas Vesalius professor of anatomy at Padua broke this slavish dependence on Galens conclusions and re-established Galens method of learning anatomy firsthand

Youve probably seen reproductions of the wood engravings from Vesalius bookDe Human Corporis Fabrica which was published in 1543 and set in motion our modern anatomical tradition This book which was one of the earliest books printed with movable type and one of the very first illustrated printed books is considered a classic by cultural historians as well as by anatomists

Vesalius converted anatomy from an uncritical acceptance of ancient texts into a modern observational science defied the authorities who disapproved of human dissection engaged the best artists of his day to execute his woodcuts and worked with printers who middot were inventing the most advanced technology of the day His justifiable pride comes through in the crowded illustrated titleshypage of the Fabrica Vesalius is shown

Dr Edward Rowe is Professor oC Biology at Emporia State University and hIlS taught humnn anatomy and pbysiology since 1961 Dr Rowe also comiddotteaches a biomedical terminology course with Dr Robbins tbis elective course studying Latin and Greek root words continues to sustain a high enrollmenL

ANDREAE VESALII B R V X ELL ENS r S S C H 0 LAG

mcdicorum Parauine profcff0risdc Humani corporis fabricl

Libri fcprcm bull

MttJrllCttlstlTlJmR-rgddc Srl1rffUr VrnfIgTd ad CJ pYvrlrgo lIl In riFlcJmJPs (0 Tunrim conllnrrUT

5

doing the dissection himself and the now deposed dissectors have nothing to do but quarrel among themselves One of the figures in classical robes probably represents Galen looking on approvingly The skeleton may represent one of Vesalius preoccupations the importance of the skeleton as the framework on which all the other organs are hung The naked figure probably represents another of his preoccupations the importance of being able to look at surface anatomy and deduce the state of internal structures (Current anatomy teachers often make the same point by telling future doctors and nurses that they need to develop a kind of x-ray vision) The animals in the picture represent the fact that most dissection of the time was on animals and even Vesalius was permitted only to dissect a few humans all of them executed criminals The figure at top right may represent the printer whose high level of skill was as essential to the success of the Fabrica as Vesalius anatomical skills or the engravers artistic skills

The work of Vesalius and his followers started anatomy on a long line of useful discoveries which continues to the present Communication of the rich details of internal anatomy required the invention of many new words It was natural that Vesalius and the other early European anatomists would make use of Latin and Greek words as they began to describe their discoveries The universities in which they worked typically drew faculty and students from allover Europe These scholars spoke such a variety of different languages and dialects that they couldnt understand each other in their native languages but because of church traditions they shared

Figure 1 (len) Title page [rom De Human Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius 1543

a reading knowledge of classical Greek and a speaking knowledge of Latin Professors everywhere on the continent routinely lectured in Latin As Vesalius and his colleagues named their discoveries they converted Greek and Latin names for surface features into names for internal parts and they improvised other terms from sources as diverse as classical mythology and household items

BONES OF THE UPPER LIMB

Two pairs of bones make up the shoulder girdle the bones which provide the foundation for the upper arm The two clavicles are in front and the two scapulas in back The clavicle is a slightly curved slender bone It takes its name from the Latin word clavicula which is usually translated as little key To our eyes it more resembles a gate latch or lever than a modern key We find the same clav- root in the word clavichord an early keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord and piano

The term scapula originally meant not shoulder bone but the whole shoulder region Here we have a case of our transferring the word for a surface feature to the bone beneath it On the front surface of a scapula is a projection shaped like a rugged birds beak It is known as the coracoid (crow-shaped) process

The name humefUS for the upper arm bone is spelled differently than the word humorous or amusing In Latin humerus was the name for the whole upper arm muscles and skin as well as the bone Now however it is the official anatomical name for the bone within that arm

Both the Latin and the Greek words for elbow have been utilized in our present-day terminology Latin ulna was transferred from the name for the elbow

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into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

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Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

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Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

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ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 2: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

The Kansas School Naturalist ISSN 0022-877X Published by EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY Prepared and Issued by THE DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Ediror JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK Edirorial Committee DAVID EDDSTOM EDDY GAYLEN NEUFELD Editors Emeritus ROBERT BOLES JOHN BREUKELMAN ROBERT F CLARKE Typist NANCY GULICK Circulation and Mailing ROGER FERGUSON Circulation (this issue) 5200 Primed by ESU Priming Services

The lVlnsas School Naturalist is sent free of charge and upon request ro teachers school adminisrrarors public and school librarians youth leaders conservationists and others imerested in natural history and nature education Inshyprim back issues are sent free as long as supply lasts Out-of-prim back issues are sem for one dollar photocopy and postagehandling charge per issue A back issue list is sent free upon request The Kamas School Naturalist is sent by third class mail to all US zipcodes first class to Mexico and Canada and surface mail overseas Overseas subscribers who wish to receive it by airmail should remit US $500 per year airmail and handling The Kansas School Naturalist is published by Emporia State University Emporia Kansas Third class postage paid at Emporia Kansas Address all correspondence to Kansas School Naturalist Department of Biological Sciences Box 4050 Emporia State University Emporia KS 66801-5087 Opinions and perspectives expressed are those of the authors andor editor and do not reflect the official position or endorsement of ESU

Publication and distribution of this issue of the Kansas School Naturalist was partially underwritten by comributions from readers like you The Kansas School Naturalist is indexed in Wildlife ReviewFisheries Review

EDITORIAL NOTE Responding to the Fact that introducroty biology textbooks intorduce more new terms than do first-year language classes some misguided educators are promoting a drastic reduction in what they call unnecessary jargon In this issue Dr Rowe elaborates the rich origins and complex meanings that are lost when inaccurate common names are substituted This language is nOt just for physicians but for citizens who will be patients who will sit on juries judging medical practices who will vote on health-related laws and who individually moniror their own health and collectively determine our health insurance rates The precise use of words is not just a symptom of an educated person it is part and parcel of operating as a healthy educated person Dr Rowes enjoyable essay weaves this terminology into everyday life

Back issues and an index to the Kansas School of NatUralist are available online at wwwemporiaedulksn

The Kansas School Naturalist is listed in Ulrichs International Periodicals Directory indexed in Wildlife ReviewFisheries Review and appropriate issues are indexed in the Zoological Record Some issues are available in Spanish and Chinese text

Dr Edward Rowe was a professor of Biology at Emporia State University and taught human anatomy and physiology as well as biomedical terminology an elective course stUdying Latin and Greek root words

COVER Vesalius illustrated skeletons in poses ro best portray their features This fromal view is a classic recognized by medical and anatomy students The shovel handle does not align with the blade and is a stage prop

3

BONE NAMES by

Edward Rowe

The first time we encounter the exotic-sounding technical names for bones most of us simply accept the standard terms given in our textbooks We dont mind the extra effort of learning them because its mildly exciting to be initiated into the language used by physicians Only later do we begin to learn the subject of this issue of the Naturalist the Greek and Latin origins of these terms

The technical bone terms used here are now standardized internationally but this obviously was not always the case Our modern anatomical terminology got its start in the mid-1500s when a few brilliant innovators dared to defy the authorities who opposed dissection of human bodies and founded modern scientific anatomy (The very word anatomy refers to the act of dissection it comes from Greek and Latin roots tom to cut and ana up) There was an early if not very advanced anatomical tradition in Greek and Roman times We know about this classical anatomy from its most brilliant contributor Galen who lived most of his life in Second Century Rome and wrote 400 treatises on medicine philosophy and religion Progress in anatomy was agonizingly slow in Europe as it passed through its dark ages and even Galens contributions would probably have been lost if they hadnt been preserved by scholars in Arab lands By the early 1500s anatomy was being taught in some but by no

means all European medical schools Where anatomy was taught the professors limited themselves to presenting Galens SUrvIVIng book knowledge Where anatomy classes used dissections (and they did so only to demonstrate Galens correctness) neither the professor nor the medical students dirtied their hands with the actual dissections that was a lower-class job delegated to uneducated servants In the mid-1500s a strong personality Andreas Vesalius professor of anatomy at Padua broke this slavish dependence on Galens conclusions and re-established Galens method of learning anatomy firsthand

Youve probably seen reproductions of the wood engravings from Vesalius bookDe Human Corporis Fabrica which was published in 1543 and set in motion our modern anatomical tradition This book which was one of the earliest books printed with movable type and one of the very first illustrated printed books is considered a classic by cultural historians as well as by anatomists

Vesalius converted anatomy from an uncritical acceptance of ancient texts into a modern observational science defied the authorities who disapproved of human dissection engaged the best artists of his day to execute his woodcuts and worked with printers who middot were inventing the most advanced technology of the day His justifiable pride comes through in the crowded illustrated titleshypage of the Fabrica Vesalius is shown

Dr Edward Rowe is Professor oC Biology at Emporia State University and hIlS taught humnn anatomy and pbysiology since 1961 Dr Rowe also comiddotteaches a biomedical terminology course with Dr Robbins tbis elective course studying Latin and Greek root words continues to sustain a high enrollmenL

ANDREAE VESALII B R V X ELL ENS r S S C H 0 LAG

mcdicorum Parauine profcff0risdc Humani corporis fabricl

Libri fcprcm bull

MttJrllCttlstlTlJmR-rgddc Srl1rffUr VrnfIgTd ad CJ pYvrlrgo lIl In riFlcJmJPs (0 Tunrim conllnrrUT

5

doing the dissection himself and the now deposed dissectors have nothing to do but quarrel among themselves One of the figures in classical robes probably represents Galen looking on approvingly The skeleton may represent one of Vesalius preoccupations the importance of the skeleton as the framework on which all the other organs are hung The naked figure probably represents another of his preoccupations the importance of being able to look at surface anatomy and deduce the state of internal structures (Current anatomy teachers often make the same point by telling future doctors and nurses that they need to develop a kind of x-ray vision) The animals in the picture represent the fact that most dissection of the time was on animals and even Vesalius was permitted only to dissect a few humans all of them executed criminals The figure at top right may represent the printer whose high level of skill was as essential to the success of the Fabrica as Vesalius anatomical skills or the engravers artistic skills

The work of Vesalius and his followers started anatomy on a long line of useful discoveries which continues to the present Communication of the rich details of internal anatomy required the invention of many new words It was natural that Vesalius and the other early European anatomists would make use of Latin and Greek words as they began to describe their discoveries The universities in which they worked typically drew faculty and students from allover Europe These scholars spoke such a variety of different languages and dialects that they couldnt understand each other in their native languages but because of church traditions they shared

Figure 1 (len) Title page [rom De Human Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius 1543

a reading knowledge of classical Greek and a speaking knowledge of Latin Professors everywhere on the continent routinely lectured in Latin As Vesalius and his colleagues named their discoveries they converted Greek and Latin names for surface features into names for internal parts and they improvised other terms from sources as diverse as classical mythology and household items

BONES OF THE UPPER LIMB

Two pairs of bones make up the shoulder girdle the bones which provide the foundation for the upper arm The two clavicles are in front and the two scapulas in back The clavicle is a slightly curved slender bone It takes its name from the Latin word clavicula which is usually translated as little key To our eyes it more resembles a gate latch or lever than a modern key We find the same clav- root in the word clavichord an early keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord and piano

The term scapula originally meant not shoulder bone but the whole shoulder region Here we have a case of our transferring the word for a surface feature to the bone beneath it On the front surface of a scapula is a projection shaped like a rugged birds beak It is known as the coracoid (crow-shaped) process

The name humefUS for the upper arm bone is spelled differently than the word humorous or amusing In Latin humerus was the name for the whole upper arm muscles and skin as well as the bone Now however it is the official anatomical name for the bone within that arm

Both the Latin and the Greek words for elbow have been utilized in our present-day terminology Latin ulna was transferred from the name for the elbow

6

I I

i I

into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 3: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

3

BONE NAMES by

Edward Rowe

The first time we encounter the exotic-sounding technical names for bones most of us simply accept the standard terms given in our textbooks We dont mind the extra effort of learning them because its mildly exciting to be initiated into the language used by physicians Only later do we begin to learn the subject of this issue of the Naturalist the Greek and Latin origins of these terms

The technical bone terms used here are now standardized internationally but this obviously was not always the case Our modern anatomical terminology got its start in the mid-1500s when a few brilliant innovators dared to defy the authorities who opposed dissection of human bodies and founded modern scientific anatomy (The very word anatomy refers to the act of dissection it comes from Greek and Latin roots tom to cut and ana up) There was an early if not very advanced anatomical tradition in Greek and Roman times We know about this classical anatomy from its most brilliant contributor Galen who lived most of his life in Second Century Rome and wrote 400 treatises on medicine philosophy and religion Progress in anatomy was agonizingly slow in Europe as it passed through its dark ages and even Galens contributions would probably have been lost if they hadnt been preserved by scholars in Arab lands By the early 1500s anatomy was being taught in some but by no

means all European medical schools Where anatomy was taught the professors limited themselves to presenting Galens SUrvIVIng book knowledge Where anatomy classes used dissections (and they did so only to demonstrate Galens correctness) neither the professor nor the medical students dirtied their hands with the actual dissections that was a lower-class job delegated to uneducated servants In the mid-1500s a strong personality Andreas Vesalius professor of anatomy at Padua broke this slavish dependence on Galens conclusions and re-established Galens method of learning anatomy firsthand

Youve probably seen reproductions of the wood engravings from Vesalius bookDe Human Corporis Fabrica which was published in 1543 and set in motion our modern anatomical tradition This book which was one of the earliest books printed with movable type and one of the very first illustrated printed books is considered a classic by cultural historians as well as by anatomists

Vesalius converted anatomy from an uncritical acceptance of ancient texts into a modern observational science defied the authorities who disapproved of human dissection engaged the best artists of his day to execute his woodcuts and worked with printers who middot were inventing the most advanced technology of the day His justifiable pride comes through in the crowded illustrated titleshypage of the Fabrica Vesalius is shown

Dr Edward Rowe is Professor oC Biology at Emporia State University and hIlS taught humnn anatomy and pbysiology since 1961 Dr Rowe also comiddotteaches a biomedical terminology course with Dr Robbins tbis elective course studying Latin and Greek root words continues to sustain a high enrollmenL

ANDREAE VESALII B R V X ELL ENS r S S C H 0 LAG

mcdicorum Parauine profcff0risdc Humani corporis fabricl

Libri fcprcm bull

MttJrllCttlstlTlJmR-rgddc Srl1rffUr VrnfIgTd ad CJ pYvrlrgo lIl In riFlcJmJPs (0 Tunrim conllnrrUT

5

doing the dissection himself and the now deposed dissectors have nothing to do but quarrel among themselves One of the figures in classical robes probably represents Galen looking on approvingly The skeleton may represent one of Vesalius preoccupations the importance of the skeleton as the framework on which all the other organs are hung The naked figure probably represents another of his preoccupations the importance of being able to look at surface anatomy and deduce the state of internal structures (Current anatomy teachers often make the same point by telling future doctors and nurses that they need to develop a kind of x-ray vision) The animals in the picture represent the fact that most dissection of the time was on animals and even Vesalius was permitted only to dissect a few humans all of them executed criminals The figure at top right may represent the printer whose high level of skill was as essential to the success of the Fabrica as Vesalius anatomical skills or the engravers artistic skills

The work of Vesalius and his followers started anatomy on a long line of useful discoveries which continues to the present Communication of the rich details of internal anatomy required the invention of many new words It was natural that Vesalius and the other early European anatomists would make use of Latin and Greek words as they began to describe their discoveries The universities in which they worked typically drew faculty and students from allover Europe These scholars spoke such a variety of different languages and dialects that they couldnt understand each other in their native languages but because of church traditions they shared

Figure 1 (len) Title page [rom De Human Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius 1543

a reading knowledge of classical Greek and a speaking knowledge of Latin Professors everywhere on the continent routinely lectured in Latin As Vesalius and his colleagues named their discoveries they converted Greek and Latin names for surface features into names for internal parts and they improvised other terms from sources as diverse as classical mythology and household items

BONES OF THE UPPER LIMB

Two pairs of bones make up the shoulder girdle the bones which provide the foundation for the upper arm The two clavicles are in front and the two scapulas in back The clavicle is a slightly curved slender bone It takes its name from the Latin word clavicula which is usually translated as little key To our eyes it more resembles a gate latch or lever than a modern key We find the same clav- root in the word clavichord an early keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord and piano

The term scapula originally meant not shoulder bone but the whole shoulder region Here we have a case of our transferring the word for a surface feature to the bone beneath it On the front surface of a scapula is a projection shaped like a rugged birds beak It is known as the coracoid (crow-shaped) process

The name humefUS for the upper arm bone is spelled differently than the word humorous or amusing In Latin humerus was the name for the whole upper arm muscles and skin as well as the bone Now however it is the official anatomical name for the bone within that arm

Both the Latin and the Greek words for elbow have been utilized in our present-day terminology Latin ulna was transferred from the name for the elbow

6

I I

i I

into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 4: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

ANDREAE VESALII B R V X ELL ENS r S S C H 0 LAG

mcdicorum Parauine profcff0risdc Humani corporis fabricl

Libri fcprcm bull

MttJrllCttlstlTlJmR-rgddc Srl1rffUr VrnfIgTd ad CJ pYvrlrgo lIl In riFlcJmJPs (0 Tunrim conllnrrUT

5

doing the dissection himself and the now deposed dissectors have nothing to do but quarrel among themselves One of the figures in classical robes probably represents Galen looking on approvingly The skeleton may represent one of Vesalius preoccupations the importance of the skeleton as the framework on which all the other organs are hung The naked figure probably represents another of his preoccupations the importance of being able to look at surface anatomy and deduce the state of internal structures (Current anatomy teachers often make the same point by telling future doctors and nurses that they need to develop a kind of x-ray vision) The animals in the picture represent the fact that most dissection of the time was on animals and even Vesalius was permitted only to dissect a few humans all of them executed criminals The figure at top right may represent the printer whose high level of skill was as essential to the success of the Fabrica as Vesalius anatomical skills or the engravers artistic skills

The work of Vesalius and his followers started anatomy on a long line of useful discoveries which continues to the present Communication of the rich details of internal anatomy required the invention of many new words It was natural that Vesalius and the other early European anatomists would make use of Latin and Greek words as they began to describe their discoveries The universities in which they worked typically drew faculty and students from allover Europe These scholars spoke such a variety of different languages and dialects that they couldnt understand each other in their native languages but because of church traditions they shared

Figure 1 (len) Title page [rom De Human Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius 1543

a reading knowledge of classical Greek and a speaking knowledge of Latin Professors everywhere on the continent routinely lectured in Latin As Vesalius and his colleagues named their discoveries they converted Greek and Latin names for surface features into names for internal parts and they improvised other terms from sources as diverse as classical mythology and household items

BONES OF THE UPPER LIMB

Two pairs of bones make up the shoulder girdle the bones which provide the foundation for the upper arm The two clavicles are in front and the two scapulas in back The clavicle is a slightly curved slender bone It takes its name from the Latin word clavicula which is usually translated as little key To our eyes it more resembles a gate latch or lever than a modern key We find the same clav- root in the word clavichord an early keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord and piano

The term scapula originally meant not shoulder bone but the whole shoulder region Here we have a case of our transferring the word for a surface feature to the bone beneath it On the front surface of a scapula is a projection shaped like a rugged birds beak It is known as the coracoid (crow-shaped) process

The name humefUS for the upper arm bone is spelled differently than the word humorous or amusing In Latin humerus was the name for the whole upper arm muscles and skin as well as the bone Now however it is the official anatomical name for the bone within that arm

Both the Latin and the Greek words for elbow have been utilized in our present-day terminology Latin ulna was transferred from the name for the elbow

6

I I

i I

into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 5: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

5

doing the dissection himself and the now deposed dissectors have nothing to do but quarrel among themselves One of the figures in classical robes probably represents Galen looking on approvingly The skeleton may represent one of Vesalius preoccupations the importance of the skeleton as the framework on which all the other organs are hung The naked figure probably represents another of his preoccupations the importance of being able to look at surface anatomy and deduce the state of internal structures (Current anatomy teachers often make the same point by telling future doctors and nurses that they need to develop a kind of x-ray vision) The animals in the picture represent the fact that most dissection of the time was on animals and even Vesalius was permitted only to dissect a few humans all of them executed criminals The figure at top right may represent the printer whose high level of skill was as essential to the success of the Fabrica as Vesalius anatomical skills or the engravers artistic skills

The work of Vesalius and his followers started anatomy on a long line of useful discoveries which continues to the present Communication of the rich details of internal anatomy required the invention of many new words It was natural that Vesalius and the other early European anatomists would make use of Latin and Greek words as they began to describe their discoveries The universities in which they worked typically drew faculty and students from allover Europe These scholars spoke such a variety of different languages and dialects that they couldnt understand each other in their native languages but because of church traditions they shared

Figure 1 (len) Title page [rom De Human Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius 1543

a reading knowledge of classical Greek and a speaking knowledge of Latin Professors everywhere on the continent routinely lectured in Latin As Vesalius and his colleagues named their discoveries they converted Greek and Latin names for surface features into names for internal parts and they improvised other terms from sources as diverse as classical mythology and household items

BONES OF THE UPPER LIMB

Two pairs of bones make up the shoulder girdle the bones which provide the foundation for the upper arm The two clavicles are in front and the two scapulas in back The clavicle is a slightly curved slender bone It takes its name from the Latin word clavicula which is usually translated as little key To our eyes it more resembles a gate latch or lever than a modern key We find the same clav- root in the word clavichord an early keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord and piano

The term scapula originally meant not shoulder bone but the whole shoulder region Here we have a case of our transferring the word for a surface feature to the bone beneath it On the front surface of a scapula is a projection shaped like a rugged birds beak It is known as the coracoid (crow-shaped) process

The name humefUS for the upper arm bone is spelled differently than the word humorous or amusing In Latin humerus was the name for the whole upper arm muscles and skin as well as the bone Now however it is the official anatomical name for the bone within that arm

Both the Latin and the Greek words for elbow have been utilized in our present-day terminology Latin ulna was transferred from the name for the elbow

6

I I

i I

into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 6: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

6

I I

i I

into the name of one of the two forearm bones Greek olene was combined with kranion (head) to form olecranon our term for the head or tip of the elbow or what we call the funny bone By the way that jangling feeling we get when we hit the elbow in just ~he wrong place is due to stimulation of a nerve not of the boneThe name radius for the other forearm bone reminds us that this is the bone which rotates around the ulna and carries the wrist and hand with it

There are eight bones in the wrist collectively called the carpal bones after the Latin term carpus which meant wrist

Beyond the carpals the five metacarpals form the flat web of the hand and provide the bases of the finger bones Here the root mela- means after or beyond The subject of metaphysics one of the most abstract branches of philosophy got its name simply because Aristotles book on the subject immediately followed his book on physics

There are fourteen finger bones known as phalanges on each hand The Greek word plwkmx referred not only to these finger bones but to a formidible battle formation The front row of a military phalanx consisted of soldiers armed with spears and shields standing shoulder to shoulder If an enemy beat down the front row there were seven to fifteen rows of replacements standing behind the front-row troops

BONES OF THE PELVIS AND LOWER LIMB

The Latin word pelvis meant basin a good description of the ring of bones

Figure 2 (len) A lateral skeletal figure showing arm bones and side view of foot From Vesalius 1543 Figure 3 (facing page) Bones of the hand many muscle names are derived from the names of the bones to which they attach From Gray 1858

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 7: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

7

Ext carpi radialis longus

Ext carpi radial brevi 11I~~c~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext poUici PHALANGES ionguo -I(fo1liii-

prorimal

Ext digitorum and Ext indici

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 8: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

8

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 9: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

9

formed by the right and left hip bones and the sacrum Rather than refer to a whole hip bone anatomists usually refer to three regions the upper flaring ilium the anterior pubis and the lower ischium (part you sit on) Separating each hip bone into three regions is not arbitrary in the skeleton of a young growing person each hip bone is actually three separate bones joined by thin (cartilage) growth regions Each of these three bones gets its name from a Greek or Latin term for the hip region

In each hip bone there is a deep cup-like socket which holds the rounded head of the thigh bone The name given to this socket is acetabulum Latin for vinegar bowl The root acet- means vinegar Acetic acid gets its name from the fact that it is the main constituent of vinegar The Latin word femur meant the whole thigh but the meaning shifted and the word now denotes the bone within the thigh

The patella is the round bone which lies in front of the knee joint Patella is Latin for little plate It seems a shame to give such a trivial name to a bone which serves at least four important functions It acts as an energy-absorbing bumper protecting the more tender structures of the knee joint It lies within ~he heavy tendon from the large quadriceps group of muscles and gives th added strength of bone tissue to that tendon Because the patella has low-friction cartilage on the surface which slides in a groove in the femur contractions of the powerful quadriceps muscles are transmitted to the lower leg with less frictional loss Finally the patella improves the tendons angle of leverage as it pulls on the lower leg bone

Figure 4 (facing page) The male (top) and female (bottom) pelvis clearly shows differences including the passage width required to allow childbirth From

Gray 1858

so it increases the effective force transmitted to the lower leg

Each lower leg has two bones the thicker tibia which bears most of the weight and the more slender fibula Tibia was the Latin word for a musical pipe such as one note on a pan flute This bone is typical of limb bones in that it has a hollow shaft and two ends of spongy bone It could easily happen that one end of a buried tibia could decay leaving a hollow tube open at one end and closed at the other The dimensions are reasonable a resonant tube the length of an average human tibia would sound a note close to middle C

The tibia is paralleled by a thinner bone the fibula In classical times fibulae were metal clasps or pins used to hold clothing together The simpler ones were like our safety pins and the more elaborate ones were like our decorative pins or brooches (At the end of the Oedipus legend the protagonist is so remorseful that he uses a fibula - a pin not a bone - to shred his eyes)

At the lower ends of the tibia and fibula are rounded projections known as malleoli We sometimes inaccurately call these our ankle bones The mall- root means hammer related to the English word mallet and the -aus is a diminutive ending The two malleoli act to hold in the talus the top bone of the tarsal group

There are seven bones of the tarsal (ankle) group Tarsus was the Greek word for ankle and it also meant flat There is a flat region of the inside of the ankle just below the malleoli There is another more or less flat structure in the body called a tarsus the fibrous connective tissue stiffener of the upper eyelid The uppermost of these seven ankle bones is the talus whose joint with the tibia and fibula allows the hinge-like movement between leg and foot The calcaneus (heel bone) acts like a short lever on the back of the foot when the

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 10: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

10

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS LONGU8

Groove JOT tendon oj PERONEUS BREmiddotlS

calf muscles contract they pull on this bone through the Achilles tendon and cause the foot to point Talus was the Latin word for the whole ankle and calcaneus meant the whole heel Another three tarsal bones are known as the cuneifonn (wedge-shaped) bones (One of the earliest forms of writing was known as cuneiform made by pushing wedge-shaped sticks into clay It started out as simple record keeping of commercial transactions and ended as literature )

BONES OF THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN

Vesalius illustration of the backbone can be compared to a more modern illustration What we call the backbone is of course not one bone but a column made up of about 33 individual bones known as vertebrae These vertebrae plus the discs connecting them provide a strong yet flexible reinforcing rod for the upper body Though most of us would be unaware of this the term vertebra itself implies the flexibility and mobility of the column the word vertebra comes from the Latin verb veHere which means to turn (Many English words are built on the same root including revert to turn back invert to turn over and divert to turn aside)

The topmost bone in the vertebral column is known as the atlas bone The atlas supports the skull and whenever we nod our head to signal yes our skull rocks forward and backward on the atlas

The atlas bone was named for Atlas the Greek titan who in the original

Figure S (len) A view of the right foot looking down from above From Gray 1858 Figure 6 (rlgbt) The vertebral column viewed from the perrons left side note that the curvature shown here by Gray (858) is more realistic than the straight spine shown on the cover or in Figure 2 by Vesalius

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 11: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

11

ht clrvical lH Arilu

myth held up the sky Atlas apparently became a figure of speech for just about any support structure If you look up Atlas in several dictionaries you will find pictures of Atlas-shaped columns holding up temple roofs Atlas-shaped supports on metal bowls etc (We often see him represented as a muscular figure straining to support the spherical planet Earth on his shoulders but this is undoubtedly a more recent variation on the old myth)

The bone just under the atlas is the axis appropriately named because the atlas (and the skull) rotate around it when we signal no The upward projection on the axis the structure which allows this bone to function as an axis is called the dens (Latin for tooth) or odontoid process (Greek odont = tooth -oUi =shape)

At the lower end of the vertebral column literally at the tail end are several small vertebrae known collectively as the coccyx This word is Greek for cuckoo and the name refers to the forward-curvature of this group of bones which resembles the downward-curving beak of the European cuckoo bird

Just above the coccyx is the largest single bone of the vertebral column the sacrum It is formed from the fusion of five embryonic vertebrae and joins with the right and left hip bones Most dictionaries state that the word sacrum was Latin for sacred but they fail to clear up the mystery of why this bone might be sacred Galen referred to this bone by a Greek word which can be translated as sacred but none of the explanations is entirely satisfactory Was Galen making a sinister reference to animal or human sacrifice One tradition has it that this bone was considered sacred by the early Christians because of its large size it would be one of the last bones to decay so on Resurrection Day

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 12: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

12

the rest of the body could be reconstituted from this remnant The least colorful explanation is that non-Christian Galen was just mis-translated the Greek word Galen used could mean important as well as sacred and all he meant was that the sacrum is the most important bone of the vertebral column in the sense that it is the largest

BONES OF THE SKULL

Most adult humans have 22 skull bones ten cranial bones (those enclosing the brain) and twelve facial bones The frontal bone lies under the forehead The right and left parietal bones lie posterior

to the frontal bone and form the right and left side walls of the cranium The name parietal comes from the Latin word paries wall The well-known temporal bones lie just below the parietals A structure on the temporal bone the mastoid (Greek breast-shaped)process is a rounded protuberance which serves as a point of attachment for a muscle whiCh moves the head forward Another structure on the temporal bone the styloid process resembles a pointed stylUS a needle-shaped marking instrument

The zygomatic bone takes its name from the zygoma an arch of bone extending from the cheek to the temporal bone Zygoma meant to yoke or connect and strong jaw-closer muscles

crista gallifronral bone ---f~

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone -------+7

~-~~~-- sphenoid

---i~Wi~=o---+--~r-- sella turcica

Figure 7 View of the inner surface of the base of the skull Near the top is the sievemiddotlike ethmoid bone Near the bottom is the opening called the foramen magnum where the spinal cord enters the skull After

McMurrich

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 13: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

13

run from the zygomatic arch to the lower jaw (A term which goes back to the same root zygote refers to another kind of connection the single cell resulting from the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell) Foramen magnum translates literally from Latin as large opening and that is what it is the opening in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord enters the skull Occiput (Latin for base of the skull) came from two simpler roots oc or ob opposite or other end and caput (head)

The sphenoid bone resembles an upside-down keystone in the sense that it lies at the base of the brain and all the other cranial bones join it The word sphenoid Greek for wedge-shape is a reference to this arrangement In the middle of the sphenoid is a rounded depression the sella turcica Latin for Turkish saddle In life this depression contains the bodys master gland the pituitary The Latin word sella is retained as the word for saddle or chair in Spanish as silla

The vomer bone provides a midline partition separating the airway into the right and left nasal passageways The name meant plow in Latin and the bone certainly does look like a plowshare

The ethmoid bone lies above the vomer and between the two orbits (eye sockets) The top of the ethmoid makes up part of the floor under the brain and has many small openings through which olfactory nerves reach the upper the nasal passages

The name ethmoid means sieve-like The ethmoid has several delicate snail shell-like bony parts known as conchae (snails) that project into the airway and help tumble the inhaled air The conchae are covered with blood-rich mucus-secreting tissues which trap dust and warm and moisten the inhaled air A vertical partition arises from the top of

the ethmoid bone and looks very much like its Latin name crista galli which means roosters comb

A small bone the lacrimal provides another part of the lining of the orbit The root lacrim- means tears and refers to the fact that this bone partially surrounds a duct which collects tear fluid after it has flowed over the front of the eye and carries it to the nasal passages (Tears not only keep the surface of the eye moist but they also help moisten the inhaled air as it passes over the conchae)

ADDITIONAL BONE TERMS Cartilage soft pliable gristle lacking blood

vessels in the adult skeleton the embryonic middotskeleton is mostly cartilage and is slowly replaced by more active bone tissue

Fracture - a broken bone compound fractures extend through an open wound complicated fractures cause damage to organs nerves etc

Marrow - soft core of most bones red marrow harbors stem cells that produce red and white blood cells yellow tnJ1TOw is mostly fat

Osteilis - inflammation of bone Osteoblasts - cells that form bone Osteoclasts bone-absorbing cells now known to be

a type of macrophage (a white blood cell) bone grows through a combined action of osteoblasts

Osteomyelllls bone infection may lead to abcesses in bone and require surgery

Osteoporosis - a thinning of bone tissue from lack of calcium a common process with aging

Osteosarcoma - a bone tumor Periosteum outer coating of a bone a layer of

blood vessels and nerves necessary for bone growth and repair bone pain is from the periosteum

Figure 8 (page 14-15) Front and side views of the human skull provided here for use by teachers in coursework Drawn by Mark Buehler Emporia

Slate University

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 14: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

14

parietal

sphenoid

temporal

middle

inferior nasal concha

zygomatic

frontal

-amp1-- nasal

~~fI~r-nasal concha

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 15: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

15

ethmoid

mastoid process

styloid process mandible f bull

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York

Page 16: BONE ·NAMES - Emporia State University · PDF filecomes from Greek and Latin roots, tom ... mid-1500s a strong personality, Andreas ... Greek word plwkmx referred not only to

Further References Ayers Donald 1972 Bioscimtific Tmninology

Words from Latin and Gruk Stems University of Arizona Press Tucson

Borror Donald J 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms Mayfield Publishing Company Palo Alto CA

Clemente Carmine D (ed ) 1984 Grays Anatomy of the Human Body 30th Edition Lea and Febiger Philadelphia

Dorland WA Newman 1988 Dorumds lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition WB Saunders Co Philadelphia

Hole John W Hole Jr 1990 Human Anatomy and Physiology 5th Edition Wm C Brown Pub Dubuque IA

Matt M and J Ziemian Human Anatomy Coloring Book Order 24138-6 from Dover Pub Inc 31 East Mineola NY 11501 for $295

McMinn RMH and RT Hutchins 1977 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy Yearbook Medical Pub Chicago

Netter Frank H 1953 The ClBA Collection of Medical Illustrations CIBA Pharmaceutical Products Summit NJ

Netter Frank H 1989 Atlas ofHuman Anatomy Pharmaceutical Division CIBA-Geigy Corporation West Caldwell NJ

Partridge Eric 1983 Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modem English Greenwich HouseCrown Publishers New York

Rowe Edward 1982 1 Didnt Know that (Humans Kansas School Naturalist Vo 29 No1 Photocopies available for $100

Saunders JB and CO OMalley (ed) The Illustrations of Andrtas Vtsalius Order 20968-7 from Dover Publications Ind for $1095

Simpson J A and EsC Weiner 1989 The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition Clarendon Press Oxford

Skinner Henry A 1961 T71t Origin of Medical Terms 2nd Edition Williams and Wilkins Co Baltimore

Tortora Gerard J and NP Anognostakos 1990 Principles of Analomy and Physiology 6th Edilion Harper and Row New York