The ancient Hellenic and Hippocratic origins of head and brain terminology.

ABSTRACT

Corpus Hippocraticum, a collection of Hippocratic writings, is considered to be the first written monument of rationale medicine. This article focuses on a series of ancient Hellenic words which are cited in Hippocratic passages and have been adopted in current head and brain terminology either invariably, i.e., keeping their original meaning, or as component parts of newly formed terms. This study aims to demonstrate first that the deeper roots of current neuroanatomical terminology spread in Hippocratic writings and second, that ancient Hellenic remains a living language that would probably ever continue to play a catalytic role in the formation of neuroanatomical glossary by providing accurate, emblematic, and functional terms.