“Burned as a sacrifice, incense” in Greek. A lymphoid organ lying directly above the heart, more prominent in the young than adults. This gland provides the T-lymphocytes so important in the immune process and the primary cell type attacked by …
A “little fountain or spring” (derived from the Latin). In laymen’s terms, the “soft spots” of a baby’s head are membranous areas between the skull bones that allow changes in shape of the head as it traverses the birth canal. …
This term is a combining of two Greek words meaning “to put together with an egg” and describes the construction of certain joints in the body. For example, your knee joint is a membrane lined cavity (synovial membrane, synovial cavity) …
“Bottom of the bag” in French. In everyday English a cul-de-sac is a blind alley, a dead-end street. In anatomy a cul-de-sac is a blind-ending pouch. The most well known is the rectouterine pouch between the uterus and rectum in …
“Scoops, buckets” in Latin. In ancient times water wheels with a series of buckets along the rim drew up water from shallow wells and poured it into troughs for watering stock or irrigation ditches. As imaginative as ever, anatomists thought …
The Achilles tendon attaches major calf muscles, the gastrocnemius and soleus, to the calcaneous (heel bone). Achilles was a famous Greek warrior whose mother was one of the immortals, but he was not. His mother sought to protect her son …
A deep layer of the scalp is a close fitting, tough connective tissue “helmet” called the galea aponeurotica. In the ancient Roman army, common foot soldiers were issued a close fitting leather helmet called a “galea”.
There are two major categories of anatomical terms: those that are simply descriptive as to shape, size, color, function and eponyms, the practice of honoring those who discover or first describe a structure by applying their name to it (e.g. …
The testis is the male generative organ, producing sperm cells and the male sex hormone, testosterone. Testis is a Latin word for “witness”, as in witnessing to one’s manhood. Did you know that the words testify, testimonial and testament share …