# De rerum medicum in lingua latina **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2000, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051 "2000-03-03T07:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/1 "2000-03-03T07:12:00Z")
I was flipping through a medical dictionary at work today (I work in a university law library - it was Stedman’s Lawyer’s Edition) and I tripped over the definition of Hand. It was: Hand. 1: Manus. So I turn to Manus. Manus: The distal end of the superior limb, including the carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges. I’m seriously wondering. Does any English-speaking doctor ever call it a manus (or the distal end of the superior limb, for that matter)? Sure enough, there were others: Heart: 1. Cor; the hollow muscular pouch (etc). Liver: 1. Hepar; the largest gland (etc). Head: 1. Caput. and so on. Do doctors ever use these terms even among themselves? The cerebrum boggles. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/2 "2000-03-03T07:20:00Z")
Oh, yeah. If so, why? ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/3 "2000-03-03T07:49:00Z")
Lexicographer: 1. Corpus verbosum; the hollow cranial pouch (etc). Ray (in absentia) ---
**Author:** ![pennys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/958977/32.png) [@pennys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pennys)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/4 "2000-03-03T08:55:00Z")
The short answer is rarely, when referring to a disease old and established enough to have retained its latin name. Cor pulmonale, for example, springs to mind (enlargement of the right ventricle due to diseases of the lung, thorax or pulmonary circulation). The use of latin terms has certainly decreased in Medicine in favour of more scientific or descriptive terms (you could just call the above right ventriculomegaly due to disease of lung etc but cor pulmonale is shorter - perhaps that explains its longevity). The definition you gave for manus is not really that strange. My OED gives a definition of the english word hand, as “the terminal part beyond wrist of human arm or monkey’s limb”. How else would you describe it? ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/5 "2000-03-03T13:34:00Z")
Working in the field, the doctor might not use these terms when chatting with patients. However, these terms (i.e. manus) have a very specific meaning and are usually used in combination with other Latin anatomical terms to describe a precise location on a limb or even a specific bone. Also, such terms arise regarding the specifics of a medical procedure. If nothing else, it’s a big hoot at cocktail parties! 😉 * * * “They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/6 "2000-03-03T17:12:00Z")
If you have nice hands & you work with those in commercials, you are doing ‘hand jobs.’ This can get some weird looks, ‘hi I do hand jobs.’ Thus, ‘manus jobs’ is much better to use. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/7 "2000-03-03T17:13:00Z")
If you have nice hands & you work with those in commercials, you are doing ‘hand jobs.’ This can get some weird looks, ‘hi I do hand jobs.’ Thus, ‘manus jobs’ is much better to use… ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/8 "2000-03-03T17:20:00Z")
[Dr. Evil voice]Rrrrriiiiiight…[/Dr. Evil voice] * * * **Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you. **Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2000, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/de-rerum-medicum-in-lingua-latina/8051/9 "2000-03-04T06:01:00Z")
Did you hear about the photographer that needed hand photographs for advertisements, but the typesetter printing the employement notice ran out of m’s? 😉