BONE

NAMES

THE KANSAS SCHOOL NATURALIST

VOL. 38
No. 1

EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY

EMPORIA, KANSAS

2003 REPRINT OF

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 EDDS,TOM 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. In
prim back issues are sent free as long as supply lasts. Out-of-prim back issues are sem for one dollar photocopy and
postage/handling charge per issue. A back issue list is sent free upon request. The Kamas School Naturalist is sent by
third class mail to all U.S. zipcodes, first class to Mexico and Canada, and surface mail overseas. Overseas subscribers
who wish to receive it by airmail should remit US $5.00 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 and/or 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 Review/Fisheries 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. Rowe's
enjoyable essay weaves this terminology into everyday life.
Back issues and an index to the Kansas School of NatUralist are available online at:
www.emporia.edulksn/
The Kansas School Naturalist is listed in Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, indexed in Wildlife
Review/Fisheries 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.

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 don't mind the extra effort of
learning them because it's 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 Galen's contributions
would probably have been lost if they
hadn't 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 Galen's SUrvIVIng book
knowledge. Where anatomy classes used
dissections (and they did so only to
demonstrate Galen's 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 Galen's
conclusions and re-established Galen's
method of learning anatomy firsthand.
You've probably seen reproductions
of the wood engravings from Vesalius'
book,De 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 were
inventing the most advanced technology
of the day. His justifiable pride comes
through in the crowded illustrated title
page 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 coteaches a biomedical terminology course with Dr. Robbins; tbis
elective course studying Latin and Greek: root words continues to sustain a high enrollmenL

ANDREAE
B R V X ELL ENS

VESALII
r

S,

S C H 0 LAG

mcdicorum Parauin;e profcff0ris,dc

Humani corporis fabricl

Libri fcprcm

MttJ'rll.Cttl/s"tlTlJmR-rgd.dc Srl1rffUr Vrn"fI"gTd.'

a 'd. CJ pY/vrlrg,"o , lIl In ri'FlcJmJPs (0 Tunrim: conll"nrrUT'

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 engraver's 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 couldn't 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 bird's 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

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
bone.The 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
Aristotle's 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.

Ext. carpi radialis longus

Ext. carpi radial;' brevi, 11I~~??';:c::...:::~~

MCTACARPUS

Ext. poUici.

PHALANGES

iongu.o -"I(f'o:'1liii'-:{
prorimal

Ext. digitorum and

Ext. indici,

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 tendon's 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 paralle\led 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 -a/us 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 BRE\lS

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 perron's 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

fronral bone

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 galli

---f~

~:....-~~~----i~Wi~=,,':o---+--!"~'r--

sphenoid
sella turcica

fo ramen magnum

occipital bone

-------'"+7

Figure 7. View of the inner surface of the base of the skull. Near the top is the sievelike 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 body's 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 "rooster's 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
skeleton" 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 tnJ1/TOw 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

frontal
.',':.,.."
.,',

temporal

,..-&.....1--

nasal

middle
~~fI~""'r-nasal concha
inferior
nasal concha
zygomatic

15

ethmoid

mastoid process
styloid process

mandible
''' '.

f,

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. Gray's
Anatomy of the Human Body, 30th Edition.
Lea and Febiger: Philadelphia.
Dorland, W.A. Newman. 1988. Dorumd's
lUustratui Medical Dictionary 27th Edition.
W.B. 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
$2.95.
McMinn, R.M.H. and R.T. 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 of Human Anatomy.
Pharmaceutical
Division, CIBA-Geigy
Corporation: West Caldwell, NJ.
Partridge, Eric. 1983. Origins: A Short
Etymological Dictionary of Modem English .
Greenwich House/Crown Publishers: New
York.
Rowe, Edward. 1982. "1 Didn't Know that!
(Humans" Kansas School Naturalist Vo!. 29,
No.1. Photocopies available for $1.00.
Saunders, J.B. and C.O. O'Malley (ed.) The
Illustrations of Andrt'.as Vt'salius. Order
20968-7 from Dover Publications, Ind. for
$10.95.
Simpson, J.A. and E.s.C. 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 N.P. Anognostakos. 1990.
Principles of Analomy and Physiology, 6th
Edilion . Harper and Row: New York.