The Role of Latin and Greek in Science

Students often lament that most of the early years of studying scientific disciplines such as anatomy, botany, zoology and medicine is really an exercise in memorising long scientific names, and will comment that the purveyors of their discipline have deliberately made the terminology excruciatingly difficult simply to give their students something to do during their many years of study. For instance, they will ask why the thigh bone should be called the femur, instead of simply “the thigh bone,” and the cheek bone the maxilla, instead of “the cheek bone.”

The truth is, students of these disciplines would be calling these structures by very simple names, if only they spoke the correct language. Scientific terminology is, on the whole, a mishmash of Latin, Greek and English. Anatomical terms, for instance, rely heavily on Latin, a virtually dead language that is now only spoken by a handful of clerics, but which used to be the language of scientists. If today’s students’ were lucky enough to have Latin as their first language, then anatomy would be alarmingly easy to learn. After all, femur is simply Latin for thigh, and maxilla is simply Latin for cheek. So if only you spoke Latin, everything in anatomy would be called by simple, easy and obvious names.

Here’s a few more anatomical terms.

·         At the base of the skull is a large hole through which the spinal cord exits. This hole is called the foramen magnum. If only your first language was Latin, because then you’d be calling it “the big hole.” (Foramen is Latin for hole, and magnum is Latin for big.)

·         The large vein that drains blood from the lower half of the body back to the heart is called the inferior vena cava. If you spoke Latin you’d be calling this vital vessel “the lower hollow vein.” (Inferior=lower; vena=vein; cava=hollow.)

·         The hip bone is formally called the os coxa, or coxal bone. You guessed it, os coxa is Latin for hip bone. (Os=bone; coxa=hip.) Interestingly, the hip bone was formerly called the innominate bone. This again is Latin, meaning “bone without a name.” Why give it a name, if the name is going to mean “doesn’t have a name?”

·         For about two weeks out of a typical four week cycle, a the ovary of a fertile woman contains a microscopic yellow structure called the corpus luteum. Corpus is generally translated from Latin as meaning body, but it doesn’t so much mean body as in a dead body, but body as in thing. Corpus luteum, then, could be loosely translated as yellow thing. (Luteum=yellow). It’s easy to imagine the first person to look down a microscope at the ovary exclaiming “look at the yellow thing!”

·         The hippocampus of the brain takes its name from the Latin word for seahorse, because of its remarkable resemblance to the seahorse, a type of fish. The hippocampus is one of the first areas of the brain to deteriorate during the course of Alzheimer’s disease, resulting in the memory loss and disorientation that is characteristic of the disease.

·         In anatomy, the fingers and thumb are called digits, a Latin term. It is interesting that we also use the word digit to refer to the numbers zero to nine – but after all, where do we learn to count but on our fingers and thumbs?  

·         The face contains a muscle known formally as levator labii superioris alaeque nasi. This anatomical mouthful is the nemesis of many a medical and science student, but again, a Latin speaker would find the name charmingly simple and illuminating; literally it means ‘lifter of the upper lip and wing of the nose’, which absolutely describes what it does. By the way, this is the longest muscle name of any muscle in any animal. The muscle itself dilates the nostril and lifts the upper lip, enabling its owner to snarl, and is sometimes endearingly nicknamed “the Elvis muscle.”

·         Surrounding the brain are three layers of tissue called meninges. The name of the outermost layer, the dura mater, translates literally from the Latin as “tough mother.” You can probably see the connection between the Latin word “dura” and certain English words, such as durable, which have a similar meaning to “tough.” If you think you’re mother is being unreasonable, maybe you should call her a ‘dura mater.’

·         Beyond the lower terminus of the spinal cord is a group of spinal nerves that together appeared similar to a horse’s tail to the person who named it the ‘cauda equina.’ (cauda=tail; equine=horse. Note the similarity of the Latin word for horse to English words such as ‘equestrian.’)

·         The duodenum, the first part of the small intestine, was originally called the intestinum duodenum digitorum, from the Latin for ‘intestine of twelve fingerbreaths’ (duodenum=twelve). This name is a puzzle, given that the duodenum, at about thirty centimetres, is about twelve inches long, certainly more than twelve fingerbreaths (unless Latin speakers have massively enlarged fingers.)

·         The vas deferens, literally from the Latin ‘the vessel that brings’, is a tube that transports sperm during their rapid departure from the male body. A remarkably simple name if Latin is your language.

·         In the ear are three tiny ear bones, or ossicles, named the malleus, incus and stapes. Malleus, as can be imagined by its similarity to the word mallet, is Latin for hammer, and indeed the bone is reminiscent of a hammer. The three ear bones are often referred to as the hammer, anvil and strirrup by people outside the realm of science.

·         Placenta is the Latin word for cake, and this word is used by anatomists to describe the temporary organ that supplies oxygen and nutrients to the unborn child. Indeed, its shape is like a flat, round cake, and incredibly, some people choose to eat it after it is delivered some twenty minutes after the birth of the child.

·         Arbor vitae, literally ‘tree of life’ describes the shape of the white matter in the cerebellum of the brain. Its branching shape reminds one of the branches of a tree. (If you already knew that trees are planted on Arbor day, or that most monkeys are arboreal, you’ll know that arbor means tree.)

·         The vagus nerve, originating from the lowest parts of the brain, has branches that wander throughout the chest and abdomen, carrying nerve impulses to organs as varied as the heart, lungs and intestines. It’s name is Latin, meaning wanderer, and from this same Latin word we get English words like vagabond and vagrant.

·         Of course, some names make no sense when compared to Latin. Anus is Latin for ‘old woman.’ It is hard indeed to imagine a connection between the anatomical structure and its Latin equivalent.

Not all anatomical terms derive from Latin. Some have Greek origins.

·         The deltoid muscle of the shoulder is so named because its triangular shape reminded scholars of the Greek letter delta, also a triangle.

·         The hyoid bone in the neck, to which the tongue is anchored, is so named because its shape is similar to the Greek letter upsilon, which is similar to our U. It is noteworthy that the hyoid bone is the only bone in the human body that does not articulate with any other bone.

·         Remember the mythical Greek god Atlas, who supports the whole Earth on his shoulders? After him is named the uppermost vertebra, which supports the ‘globe’ of the head.