Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Trapezius
/trəˈpiːziəs/noun
The broad flat muscle spreading from the neck across the upper back to each shoulder.
The Greek roots
τραπέζιον
trapézion
small table, four-sided figure
Literally: “little table”
Follow a root:τραπέζιον1 word
The story of the word
τράπεζα, a table, is literally a four-footer, from τετρα and πέζα, a foot. Its diminutive gave geometry a four-sided figure, and anatomists borrowed that because the left and right muscles together make one, hinged along the spine. Greek moneychangers worked at tables, so a Greek bank today is still a τράπεζα.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
trapezoidtrapezetrapezium
In a sentence
Hours at a laptop leave the trapezius knotted at the top of the shoulders.
The physiotherapist worked on his trapezius and told him to raise the monitor.