Laura García-Orozco; Jhonatan Duque-Colorado; Josefa Alarcón-Apablaza & Mariano del Sol

The Calva (scalp) is the set of tissues that cover the upper, posterior and lateral regions of the bony head. This term, belonging to the first Latin declension characteristic of feminine nouns, is valid as an official term in Terminologia Anatomica through the numerical code 7113. However, the main translations of the same into Spanish and English are skull and bald. For this reason, the objective of the present study was to analyze the etymology of the Latin term Calva in order to evaluate and discuss the coherence between its lexical and morphological relationship, thus contributing to the understanding and correct naming of the terms belonging to Terminologia Anatomica. To address this issue, searches were conducted using Latin-Spanish and Latin-English dictionaries, where an etymological analysis determined that the relationship of the term in question with the skull and the epithet bald is due to the fact that Calvus, a Latin adjective used to refer to "bald", was formed from the words Calva, Calvaria and Recalvus, the meaning of the first being "bald head", the second "skull" and the third "having receding hairline". Therefore, it is concluded that currently the Latin term Calva is not adequate given the etymological meanings found, in addition to the possible confusion of this with other terms belonging to Terminologia Anatomica, the incorporation of a new term is suggested that obeys the guidelines of FIPAT-IFFA and the various grammatical aspects of Latin.

GARCÍA-OROZCO, L; DUQUE-COLORADO, J.; ALARCÓN-APABLAZA, J. & DEL SOL, M. Pertinence of the Latin term Calva in Terminologia Anatomica. Int. J. Morphol., 42(5):1262-1266, 2024.