Folio 84v - the nature of man, continued.
The straight part of the nose, of equal extent in roundness and length, is called 'the column', columna.
The end of the nose is called pirula, 'little pear', because it is pear-shaped.
But the right and left parts of the nose, from their resemblance to wings, are called pennule, 'little wings'.
The part between nostrils is called the septum, interfinium.
The mouth, os, is so called because, as if through a door, ostium, we send food inside and eject sputum outside; or because food goes in there and speech comes out.
Lips, labia, get their name from lambere, to lick. The upper lip we call labium; the lower, and thicker, labrum. Others say that men's lips are labra; women's, labia.
Varro thinks that the tongue, lingua, got its name from the phrase, ligare cibum, to bind food. Others say that it is because it binds words together from distinct sounds. For the tongue hits the teeth, like a plectrum hitting strings, producing the sound of the voice.
The Greeks call teeth odontes, from which they seem to have taken their Latin name, dentes.
The first of the teeth are called incisors, precisores, because they first cut up, praecidere, everything that we take into our mouth.
The Next are called canines, canini; two of them are in the right jaw, two in the left. They are so called because they look like the teeth of dogs, canis. Dogs use these teeth to break up bones, just as men do; such food as the incisors cannot cut up, they pass on to the canines to break up. They are commonly called colomelli, 'little columns', because of their length, breadth and roundness.
The last of the teeth are called molars, molares; they work, grind and chew the food which the incisors have cut up and the canines have broken up; they get their name from molere, to grind.
The number of teeth is determined by sex. For there are more in a man's mouth; fewer in a woman's. The gums, gingive, are so called because they produce, gignere, the teeth. They were created to adorn the teeth, lest a row of crooked teeth might seem more of a horror than an ornament.
Our palate, palatum,
