Origins of Anatomical Names: Anatomy Term Paper

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Some of the words used in human anatomy have fascinating origins. The term aorta has an uncertain derivation with Hippocrates being the first one recorded to mention the word around the 5th century BC. Hippocrates used the word (which may have come from combination of Greek 'aer' which means air and 'tepeo' which means to hold) to describe the trachea and its branches in consideration of the windpipe's function. The word biceps comes from the Latin words 'bis' meaning twice and caput which means head. Its brachii is basically a muscle with two heads or origins.

Another word derived from Latin is coronary from the word 'corona' meaning garland, wealth, crown or boundary. Arranged vertically instead of encircling the cranium, the coronal suture is reminiscent of the style favored by Roman emperors for the wearing of a garland. The Greek word for almond, almygdala, is a mass of gray matter positioned within the temporal lobe of the cerebrum. It is known as almygdala because it has the shape and approximate size of an almond kernel (Dr. C, 2008). The above named human body parts are examples of the origins of anatomical names.

Muscles are named depending on their sizes, the direction of their fibers run, their bodily location, the bones they attach to, how they look like, where they are in relation to certain bones and their functions within the body. In most cases, muscle names contain combinations of each of the above.

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Without the consideration of these things, naming of muscles would be a daunting task because there are over six hundred muscles in the human body and identifying each of them is not an easy task. Early anatomists looked at the above mentioned things while naming the muscles for instance, muscles with names like 'longus' or 'brevis' was a result of how long or short they were. On the other hand, a muscle named based on the direction of its fibers run was because it appears to have lines running within it (Saunders, 1996).

Based on the examples listed above on the origin of anatomical names, we can conclude that most of our modern anatomical terms originate from Latin or Greek words. These names were developed in the 1500s when many early anatomists were performing dissections of the human body. Due to the influence of the early Greek and Roman anatomists, most of the human body parts were named using Greek and Latin roots. The other origin of anatomical names is the function of the particular body part. Not all body parts have been named as a result of the influence of Greek and Latin languages, some have been named based on their functions......

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