Susan, a dental student in Redlands, California, asks about acetabulum, the anatomical term for the hip socket. It goes back to the Latin acetabulum, a vinegar cup, the small table vessel Romans used for dipping bread. Its cup shape made a natural comparison to the socket where the femur fits. A similar naming comparison gives us pelvis, from Latin for a basin or bowl. Pliny the Elder’s Natural History offers a memorable ancient aside: burn a pig’s acetabulum, mix it with resin, and use it as toothpaste. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How Latin “Acetabulum” Went from Vinegar Cup to Hip Socket”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Susan and I’m calling from Redlands, California.
And I was calling about a question I had about the acetabulum, which is something we were learning about in anatomy.
What’s the word again?
Acetabulum.
So that’s A-C-E-T-A-B-U-L-U-M. Is that correct?
Yes, that’s correct.
Are you studying that for a profession or just to be well-rounded or what?
I guess both. I’m in dental school, and it’s my first year, and our professor always talks about the meaning of the word to help us understand and memorize, you know, different parts of the body.
Excellent. So what did your professor tell you about the acetabulum, and what is it, first of all?
It’s the type of articulation in the hip.
The head of the femur fits into sort of like, I guess, a cup, you know, in the hip bone.
It’s called the acetabulum.
But in the other part, it’s not called an acetabulum.
The acetabulum is the little hip socket, the little cavity there.
And you’re absolutely right.
It goes back to Latin, and it goes back to the Latin word for vinegar cup.
Vinegar cup.
Yeah, yeah, I love this.
And this is, I mean, Susan, you probably are learning this already about the mundane poetry of anatomy.
I mean, so many of those Latinate words that look so intimidating are really just kind of everyday things.
Like pelvis means bowl or basin.
But why do I need a word for vinegar cup in Latin?
Why do you need a word for that?
Yeah, but I mean, why would it suggest itself to the people naming the parts of the body?
Excellent question.
The vinegar cup, the acetabulum, was something that you’d find in ancient Rome on your dinner table.
It was, you know, sort of like you order dressing on the side.
It’s a little thing that contains vinegar, and you dip your bread into it.
Oh, so we do this in some restaurants.
Maybe it’s a cup of balsamic with some olive oil, and you dip your country bread in there, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, but Susan, if you see a photo of one of these little things or a drawing, it looks exactly like a hip socket.
Very good. Very good.
So over time, it went from being a vinegar cup to just being a cup in general.
And even in antiquity, they were using the word acetabulum to mean hip socket.
But I can tell you something really cool about an acetabulum.
What?
In antiquity.
Your professors will love this.
Pliny the Elder, in his natural history, where he’s writing about all different kinds of things in nature and remedies and that kind of thing,
He recommends taking the acetabulum of a pig and burning it to a crisp
And then mixing that up with resin,
And he says it makes a great toothpaste.
Oh, probably.
So take that back to your professor,
And I’m sure you know something that no one else in your class knows.
I’ll take that to him.
I have a meeting with him later on this week.
I think I’ll take a crass.
So just first to a cup.
Yes.
Happened to hold acid back in the day.
Yes, originally vinegar.
Okay, vinegar.
Yeah.
That’s right.
Okay.
Oh, well, that’s interesting.
It’s good to know.
Hey, Susan, thanks for calling.
Good luck with your studies.
Thank you so much.
Okay, bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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