Jorge Eduardo Duque Parra; Bélgica Vásquez & Mariano del Sol

In International Anatomical Terminology, the term sacrum is identified with the number 1071. In humans, it is the largest vertebral bone formed by the fusion of five vertebrae. The origin of the term sacrum is still under discussion and is not entirely clear, in addition, the relevance of this denomination has been little addressed in the literature. Thus, the objective of this work was to analyze the term sacrum and then propose a term for the denomination of this anatomical structure following the recommendations of the Federative International Program for Anatomical Terminology (FIPAT). This bone was called sacrum, because it is considered sacred, since it has a deep religious meaning, although other traditions such as mysticism and rituals have also been attributed to it. The term sacrum does not favor understanding, since it is neither descriptive nor informative, so we suggest changing it to vertebrae magna (vertebrae magna), since this proposal follows the FIPAT recommendations, that is, not only be unequivocal, but also accurate.

KEY WORDS: Sacrum; Sacred; Terminologia Anatomica.

DUQUE, P. J. E.; VÁSQUEZ, B. & DEL SOL, M. History and reconceptualization of the sacrum term. Int. J. Morphol., 40(3):755-759, 2022.