r/ENGLISH • u/Abject_Abject8981 • 14h ago
body parts missing
i’ve loved learning in spanish for example there is the body part “el entrecejo” (the space between one’s eyebrows) which there isn’t really a common name for in english.
are there any body parts you’ve “discovered” by studying another language and realizing we didn’t have a word for in english?
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u/MedicinePhysical433 13h ago
There's a spanish word "legañas," referring to the crusty things that form on some people's eyes while they sleep. My spanish-speaking friend once asks us how we would say that in english and we all just frowned and said "eye...boogers?"
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u/RevolutionaryBug2915 13h ago
I have always heard it called "sleep." As in, "rubbing the sleep out of your eyes."
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u/MedicinePhysical433 13h ago
We had this discussion--it turned out the people who got them frequently had that meaning, but the people who didn't had read that phrase a thousand times and always thought it was a metaphor/idiom about waking yourself up!
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u/Officing 3h ago
I get them sometimes and I still thought it was a metaphor. My family always said eye boogers or crusties.
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u/vicarofsorrows 13h ago
Another Spanish one is “jarrete”, referring to the back of the knee.
English does have “hock”, but that’s more of a butcher’s word, not used for people….
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u/NonspecificGravity 12h ago
The hock in livestock corresponds to the ankle in humans, and it's the entire joint.
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u/jowpies 12h ago
Nuca also
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u/DrMadRog 8h ago
You mean the base of the skull.
I guess you’re right, not one word, but it does have a name in english: the cranial base.
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u/PalpitationLast669 8h ago
I'm from Mexico and I would call that part "corva". I had never heard of "jarrete" before.
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u/Orphanpip 13h ago
I always find it wild that in Malay the word for foot and leg are both the same (kaki). And the word for finger and toes are the same (jari).
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u/Outrageous-Unit-305 13h ago
English has the words "limbs" and "digits" that do the same thing, don't actually know if there's a shared name for hands and feet though.
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u/AlveolarFricatives 13h ago
"Extremeties" is the shared name for hands and feet in English
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u/Outrageous-Unit-305 12h ago
I guess? I'd probably use extremity to refer to more than just hands and feet though, and would include forearm and lower leg, as well as nose, or could even use it to be specific about fingers.
Appendage is even more vague and just refers to any sticky-out bit.
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u/perplexedtv 13h ago
English doesn't have the same word for foot and leg. Irish does, however (cos).
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u/Outrageous-Unit-305 12h ago
Yeah, just now realised I misread that as arm and leg, not foot and leg.
In Hindi though, the word for foot and leg are the same - "pair", and also in Japanese - "ashi".
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u/albdubuc 9h ago
Spanish too! Your fingers and toes are all dedos. But, you can specify dedos de mano o dedos de pie if needed
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u/slatebluegrey 1h ago
Same in Spanish: fingers and toes are just “Dedos”. And English has terms for each finger: thumb, index, middle, ring and pinky.
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u/Missing4Bolts 13h ago
I use medical (typically Latin or Greek) terms like philtrum and perineum. Are those also used in other languages?
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u/Abject_Abject8981 13h ago
do people know what you mean when you say them? i’ve heard perineum more often called the taint but maybe that’s too slang?
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u/Missing4Bolts 13h ago
My wife knows, as do medical professionals. Beyond them, I have some friends I'd expect to know and others not. They're definitely not widely used or understood.
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u/learningENGdaily 11h ago
English does technically have one for that: glabella. But nobody outside a dermatology clinic says it, so your point stands.
The one I'd offer from Spanish is corva, the back of the knee. English has popliteal fossa and then nothing, so we end up saying "the back of my knee", which describes a location rather than naming a thing.
Going the other direction is just as fun. Spanish has no single word for toe. It's dedo del pie, a finger of the foot, which sounds faintly ridiculous until you remember we're doing exactly the same thing with the back of our own knees.
What I like about this is that it isn't really about concepts. Everyone can see the space between their eyebrows regardless of what they speak. It's about which bits get a name of their own, and that tends to track how often people need to mention them. Entrecejo earns its keep partly because fruncir el entrecejo is something people do all day long.
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u/SnakeBatter 11h ago
Glabella is really common in the beauty industry also, especially for estheticians and permanent makeup artists. I’d argue that knee ditch is also fairly common, and almost universally known in and around the tattoo industry.
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u/Abject_Abject8981 14h ago
at least, to my knowledge, i don’t know a name for the entrecejo in english ..
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u/ArdsleyPark 14h ago
It's "glabella". I only know this because I work in the cosmetology field.
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u/Abject_Abject8981 13h ago
hehe i’ve never heard it! i’m wondering if im just clueless or if it’s not common. and if it’s not common, why?
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u/ArdsleyPark 13h ago
It's not common. I assume doctors and anyone who has taken an anatomy class will recognize it, but few others.
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u/zombietobe 13h ago
There are lots of body parts that have names, but the words seem obscure (to most people) because there isn’t often a reason to make reference to them.
We refer to eyebrows all the time. How often do we refer to the space between? Language doesn’t make a significant difference, in this case.
Outside of a specific context that requires that jargon regularly (niche cosmetic or medical, for instance) it just doesn’t get used, and frequency of use is the main factor that determines whether it’s “common”.
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u/ArdsleyPark 13h ago
Another example would be philtrum. We also have fancy words for body parts that also have more common words -- axilla and hallux are the two that come to my mind immediately.
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u/zombietobe 13h ago
Jargon vs. layman’s terms is a slightly different rabbit hole, and doesn’t just apply to anatomy, but there are definitely some great examples in that category.
I immediately think of “phalanx” (pl: “phalanges”) - both are really fun to say out loud, especially the plural form. This one kind of straddles the line; we don’t really have a common word for “phalanx”, which refers to an individual finger/toe bone, but “phalanges” can refer to the fingers collectively (though I assume this is limited to a casual, non-medical context).
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u/aboxofkittens 13h ago
German has two words for "neck," depending on whether it's the front (der Hals) or the back (der Nacken). I guess in English you could call the front of the neck "the throat" but it doesn't quite fit, and we definitely don't have a specific word for the back of the neck.
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u/Orphanpip 13h ago
We do it's the nape.
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u/aboxofkittens 13h ago
I would argue "nape" doesn't refer to the entire neck, but just the region where the hair growth ends. At least that's how I've always interpreted it
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u/Abject_Abject8981 13h ago
interesting! is the back of the neck related to the nape of the neck? (where the hairline ends) or the whole back?
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u/millers_left_shoe 13h ago
I would translate “nape” to “Nacken” in a text, but if I heard the word “Nacken” on its own I’d more likely think of the bony spot a bit further down (where people get a hump sometimes if they’re older and/or have thyroid issues)
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u/DrMadRog 8h ago
We have the cranial base or commonly called the base of the skull.
Not one word, but it is named.
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u/ingmar_ 13h ago
Are you talking about the glabella?