Anatomy word of the month

To “suspend or hang” in Greek.  In the male body, the cremaster is part of a mechanism to suspend the testes in a special pouch, the scrotum.  Why do the testes reside in a special pouch outside the body proper?

Sounds like a mouth-watering selection from an Italian restaurant menu! Actually, these terms are not far removed from this suggestion since they describe a muscle in your palate. Terms describing muscles are from the Latin and identify them by location,

In the ancient Greek army a row of troops was called a phalanx. To later anatomists, the rows of bones of the fingers and toes were reminiscent of rows of troops; hence, the plural word, phalanges. The term has modern

“In front of the elbow” in Latin.  The hollow in the crook of your arm in front of the elbow, with its easily accessible veins, is frequently used to insert a needle to draw blood. The cubit, an archaic unit

The fat pad over the pubic area of females is currently termed the mons pubis (pubic mountain-Latin).  An older term, the mons veneris (the mountain of Venus) referred to the Roman Goddess of Love, also known as Aphrodite in Greek

“Bottom” in Latin.  A number of organs have a part called the fundus or fundic region.  Confusingly, the fundus is typically the top of these organs such as the top of the uterus, the top of the urinary bladder, the

You might guess the region of anatomy from associations with puberty.  The pubic symphysis is the point at which the two halves of our pelvic bones come together over the genitalia.  Symphysis comes from the Greek and means a “coming

“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