Some argued that the Latin root wasn’t just about shame it could also, in theory, imply virtue or modesty. The guiding rule “is to be conservative when considering changes to terminology and logical in implementing changes,” Thomas Gest, an anatomist at the University of Houston and the former chair of the terminology group, said in an email.Īt first, not everyone was convinced that “pudendum” was egregious enough to warrant throwing out. The terminology group describes its mission as stewarding a vocabulary that is “nimble and adaptive so as to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving world of medicine, biomedicine and health-related professions.” But in practice, progress is slow. “I just couldn’t have imagined.” ‘That’s just not going to fly’ “I couldn’t see any problem at all,” he said. He couldn’t tackle all of sexism within anatomy, but removing this one troublesome word seemed like an easy task. Moxham proposed that the federation’s terminology group - which was, at the time, all male and mostly European - remove “pudendum” and related words from its upcoming dictionary. He had just stepped down as president of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists, which was working to release the newest edition of the “Terminologia Anatomica.” Moxham knew that even established terms could be changed, and thought they should be, as part of efforts to weed out racial and gender bias in medicine. Even the word vagina, which translates into sheath, scabbard or close covering, suggests that this organ’s primary function is to house a penis, which is not accurate or scientifically neutral.ĭr. Nymphae, a slightly older term for the labia minora, comes from the Latin word for bride or beautiful young maiden. The word hymen, which persists in nearly all medical textbooks, shares the same root as Hymen, the Greek god of marriage. There are other terms that reflect antiquated notions about women. “This is the only term which has a moral context to it,” he said. But it also, I think, is both scientifically and biologically inappropriate.” As a general rule, anatomical terms are supposed to be informative and descriptive. It wasn’t just the inherent sexism of the term, he said: “There is an element of that, there’s no question about it. One anatomist added that “it’s interesting where it comes from, but it’s established terminology now.” In 2016, the pair asked hundreds of medical students and anatomists whether they had any concerns about the fact that the word “pudendal” stemmed from “to be ashamed.” Most did not. It is used to diagnose and treat certain forms of pelvic pain, perform vulval and vaginal surgeries and, though less common than the epidural, alleviate the pain of second-stage labor. Anyone who has gone to medical school has probably learned how to perform a pudendal block, a numbing injection at the site of the pudendal nerve. “You just don’t really think about that kind of thing.” “I never really gave it a second thought,” he said. That included her anatomy professor, Doug Broadfield, who had been showing the pudendal canal, nerve and artery to students for 14 years. Draper was that this one had made it through 500 years of revisions and updates - and virtually no one knew what it meant. Little wonder, then, that some words might sound a little off to modern ears.

At the time it was a stretch to find a female corpse, let alone a female anatomist. There was no equivalent word for male genitals.Īnatomy as a science had its start in 16th-century Italy, as the purview of learned men. When her teacher handed her a copy of the “Terminologia Anatomica,” the international dictionary of anatomical terms, she learned that the Latin term for the vulva - including the inner and outer labia, the clitoris and the pubic mound - was pudendum. Draper noted: “I was like, What? Excuse me?” The term derived from the Latin verb pudere: to be ashamed. Then one day she looked up the pudendal nerve, which provides sensation to the vagina and vulva, or outer female genitalia. The flexor carpi ulnaris, for instance, is a muscle in the forearm that bends the wrist - exactly as its name suggests.

She could look up the Latin term for almost any body part and get an idea of where it was and what it did. As a first-year medical student at the University of Miami, she found the language clear, precise, functional. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

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