Certain muscles on the posterior side of the body have names that use Latin nouns and adjectives like those you have been learning most recently, as in the muscles making up the hamstring group: the biceps ("two headed [muscle] of the leg"), the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. You can also recognize some elements in latissimus , the “broadest [muscle] of the back” that is responsible for a variety of upper arm and shoulder movements (latissimus is a superlative form that will be explained in Chapter XIV).

Other phrases are a mix of Greek and Latin. The buttocks are made up primarily of the gluteus maximus, gluteus , and gluteus minimus. The adjectival forms are Latin, but “gluteus” (a nominative singular form) is a Latinization of the Greek word gloutos, “buttock.” Similarly, the longus, the “long muscle belonging to the fibula,” uses a Latinized form of the Greek word for “fibula”; the fully Latinate version, fibularis longus, is found as well. Other phrases mix Latin and English. The phrase “dorsal interossei muscles of the hand” is often used in place of the full Latin version, musculi interossei dorsales . You might be able to guess from the name that these muscles are located on the back of the hand in between its (the proximal phalanges, to be specific; cf. “palmar interossei muscles”).

Various other muscle names arise from a perceived resemblance to some shape. is a Greek word (filtered through Latin) that is composed of a word meaning “belly” and one meaning “leg," so called because of its protuberant form. The muscle gets its name from the Latin meaning “sandal” or “sole of the foot,” a choice made on the basis of the muscle’s flat appearance. This muscle comes between the gastrocnemius and the bone and is considered by some to make up a single muscle with the gastrocnemius, the so-called surae, “three-headed muscle of the calf” (surae is a genitive singular form). Other examples include the rhomboid and trapezius, muscles in the upper back that are named after the quadrilateral shapes that they resemble.