Do the Toes Between the “Hallux” and Little Toe Have Medical Names?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha and Grant. This is Larry in San Diego.

You got a doozy of a question for us, I hope.

I have a question, and it is, do the three toes between the big toe and the little toe have common names, analogous, I guess, to the way each of the fingers has a common name?

You mean like Moe, Larry, and Curly?

And my name’s included in that group, yes. Way to go, Grant.

I’m sorry, I meant Joe or Curly Joe.

The chimp.

Larry, why in the world would you be wondering about that?

About a month ago, I and my daughter and a friend of hers and their respective dogs, we went for a walk over in Coronado.

And when I got home, I found a whole bunch of sand in my left sock and an already broken blister on the toe next to my big toe.

And I got tired of referring to the toe next to my big toe and thought, surely that toe must have a name.

But I looked in all of the dictionaries I have. I went to a podiatry website of some kind.

I couldn’t find any name for that toe or, indeed, any of the toes other than the big toe, which I found out has three names.

So that’s when I contacted you.

Well, do tell. What are those three names of the big toe?

The big toe, the great toe, and the hallux.

Nice word, right? H-A-L-L-U-X.

Correct.

Larry, first of all, I’m really sorry about your toe.

But I’m really happy that you called because this is precisely the kind of question that we love to think about at all hours of the night.

What, Grant?

Martha, I have a life.

All right, one of us does.

Well, Larry, I tell you what. This is kind of one of those good news, bad news things.

Okay?

Okay.

So the bad news is that as far as I know, there aren’t any names for those particular toes, those three toes between the big one and the little one.

But the good news is that you’re not alone. This has bothered people in the past.

And in fact, a few years ago, a medical student from Yale University wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine and said, we need names for these things.

We’re doctors. We need names for those particular toes, like the one you’re talking about.

And so this medical student proposed five Latin names for each of your toes.

And each of those names began with the Latin element porcellus.

Oh, my God.

What’s that, mushroom or something?

No, it’s P-O-R-C-E-L-L-U-S.

What’s that mean?

Well, you guys, porcellus means, I mean, it’s Latin for little piggy.

And so, and he had names for each of the toes.

And, Larry, the toe that you were having trouble with, that’s your Porcellus domi. That’s the little piggy who stayed home.

Oh, okay.

So I think you should just, you know, if people are sympathizing with you or you want to complain about it, I think you should just tell people, I have a blister on my Porcellus domi.

They’ll never ask for details.

Well, Martha, if I went to the gym and told people I had a blister on my Porcellus domi, I think they’d wonder why I was talking about that in public.

And none of them would get in the jacuzzi with me.

No, no. It sounds like something that’s seeping and oozing, doesn’t it?

Oh, you guys are killing me. You guys are killing me.

But wait, wait, Martha. How did it turn out? Did the medical establishment agree that these would be henceforth the names for the toes?

Good question.

Well, some of the colleagues of this young man started using the term, and a few orthopedic surgeons, supposedly.

But, you know, for some reason, they just never caught on.

Well, Larry, do you think you’re going to use Porcellus domi?

I’m sorry, Martha, no.

All right, well, I did my best, Larry.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

Thank you so much for calling, Larry.

All right. Take care.

Bye-bye.

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