大象传媒

Every team has its major names. The poster girls and boys, the faces on the merchandise and the icons of the game, easily recalled by generations of fans.

The human body is a bit like that too. Our hands, feet, noses and knees are those big names; the centre forwards, scrum halves and flyweight champions of the physique world. But then there鈥檚 the lesser-known players, the backroom staff and the silent partners who are also essential to keeping a team ticking over. For example, it鈥檚 worth keeping your oxter freshly scrubbed, but would you be able to point to it? (In case you can't, it's another name for your armpit).

大象传媒 Bitesize talks you through the names you probably never knew for five parts of the body you see all the time, from your canthus right down to your hallux.

Lunula

Take a look at your fingernail (or your thumbnail). At the base, you may spot a white semicircle, looking a little like the sun peeping over the horizon. That crescent is the lunula.

Image caption,
The crescent shape at the base of some people鈥檚 fingernails and thumbnails has a name

We don鈥檛 all have them (so don鈥檛 panic if you don鈥檛!). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) carries a September 1891 listing from the British Medical Journal which refers to: 鈥淎 patient鈥 who had a lunula on each thumbnail only.鈥

Your lunula are not just nail decorations. Doctors can check on their size and colour as an indication of any underlying health issues.

Popliteal fossa

Also known as the popliteal space, this perhaps doesn鈥檛 roll off the tongue quite as easily as 'ear', 'nose' or 'armpit' - but on the other hand, you could argue that it鈥檚 the armpit of the, well, leg.

Image caption,
The popliteal fossa is the hollow space at the back of the leg, behind the knee

The popliteal fossa is the diamond-shaped space you find at the back of your knee, formed between the muscles of the thigh and calf. It鈥檚 not just a space created by accident, it allows nerves to pass between the thigh and lower leg.

Canthus

There鈥檚 a saying about spotting something from of the corner of your eye. A shorter - but not necessarily snappier - way of saying it is that you鈥檝e spotted something from your canthus.

Image caption,
The canthus marks a specific set of corners in the facial area

The points - or corners - where your upper and lower eyelids meet are the canthus. It鈥檚 not that new a term, either. The OED contains a 1728 listing from Ephraim Chambers鈥 Cyclopaedia (a dictionary for the arts and sciences) which reads: 鈥淭hat Corner next the Nose, is called the great, inner, and domestick Canthus.鈥

Suprasternal notch
Image caption,
Can you spot the suprasternal notch in this picture?

Trace a line down the exact centre of your neck, towards your chest, and you鈥檒l come to a small indentation at the bottom, between the two bones known as your clavicles.

That depression has a number of names, including the jugular notch - and also the suprasternal notch.

Hallux

We already have a well-known term for this. In everyday use, we鈥檇 call our hallux our big toe.

Image caption,
Put your best hallux forward

The word isn鈥檛 linked to bigness though. The hallux is the innermost digit of a lower limb. As well as the toes on human beings, it could also refer to the innermost claw on a bird鈥檚 foot. In some primates, the hallux is further apart from the rest of the toes, making it easier for these animals to pick up branches, etc, with their feet as the gap gives them greater dexterity.

This article was published in May 2023.

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