Geoff and Sue are in Chicago, and we visited one of my favorite museums, the Oriental Institute. All over the place they had these fibulas, which apparently are ornamental clasps, or broaches, that people used to wear way back in BC. I wondered how that was connected to the fibula bone, and I found that it comes from the Latin word meaning "pin" or "clasp," and that the bone resembles the tongue of a clasp. I hadn't known that.

I know the stapes bone in the middle ear comes from the Modern Latin word meaning "stirrup," (there was no classical Latin word for it because the ancients didn't use stirrups, according to Etymology.com) because it is shaped like a stirrup.

That made me think that so many bones or other body parts have such interesting etymologies. Do you know of any fun ones?

Coccyx is quite amusing.

"stirrup,"

Stirrup, itself, has an interesting etymology: from Old English stigrāp, literally 'mount-rope' < stīgan 'to go; go up, ascend, mount'; cf. German Stegreif, Old Icelandic stigreip.

While pelvis is Latin for "bowl, its Greek equivalent means "helmet." That's redolent of a Monty Python skit, with the troupe wearing unused pelvises on their heads. Well, maybe unused ones...

PS: Had a marvelous time with Shufitz and Kalleh!!!

And...vice versa! Love getting together with Wordcrafters!

I happened to find this site with new words for human body parts: Link My favorites were "Grand Central Station," "trotter/flipper," and "Magellan's prize."

quote:

and "Magellan's prize."

You can get VD from a GPS?