Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Gluteus
/ˈɡluːtiəs/noun
Any of the three muscles of the buttock that extend and stabilise the hip.
The Greek roots
γλουτός
gloutós
buttock, rump
Literally: “buttock”
Follow a root:γλουτός1 word
The story of the word
Anatomists took the plain Greek word for a buttock and sorted the three muscles by Latin size: maximus, medius, minimus. The largest is the biggest muscle in the human body, and it is far bigger in us than in any ape, which is one of the arguments that our ancestors ran long distances rather than only walked. It fires hardest not when you stand but when you keep the trunk from pitching forward at each stride.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
glutealglutes
In a sentence
A weak gluteus medius shows up as a hip that drops on every step.
The programme was mostly squats, aimed squarely at the gluteus maximus.