title: On the terminology of cranial nerves.
abstract: The present contribution adopts various points of view to discuss the terminology of the twelve nervi craniales. These are paired nerves and have dual names, terms with Roman ordinal numerals, i.e., the nerves are numbered in the top-to-bottom direction, and descriptive historical names. The time of origin and motivation behind the investigated terms are determined. The majority of terms come from the 17th and 18th centuries. The motivation behind most of them is (a) nerve localization, as this is in conformity with anatomical nomenclature in general, (b) nerve function, and rarely (c) nerve appearance. The occurrence of synonymous names and variants is also a focus of attention. In several cases, reference is made to the process called terminologization, meaning when a certain expression acquires technical meaning and the characteristic/feature of the term.
authors: Department of Romance Studies and Classical Philology, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Petzvalova, Slovak Republic. frantisek.simon@upjs.sk
authors: František
authors: F
authors: Simon
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Marečková-Štolcová
authors: Libor
authors: L
authors: Páč
mesh_terms: D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history; D003391:Cranial Nerves / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic