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LostInParadise's avatar

Is there a common name for the back of the thigh?

Asked by LostInParadise (31913points) July 16th, 2011

For the lower leg, we refer to shin and calf. The front of the upper leg is the thigh. Is there a name for the back part? If not, should there be?

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22 Answers

Kardamom's avatar

Hamstrings

Sunny2's avatar

Yup. Hamstrings.

LostInParadise's avatar

Would you say, “I got a mosquito bite on my left hamstrings.”?

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

A common name use to be the bacon or cheesecake.

downtide's avatar

It’s hamstring but you would only use that term to refer to the muscle, not the surface of the skin. So no, you wouldn’t say the mosquito bit your hamstring, but you would say that your hamstring aches, if you over-exerted it in exercise. I know of no specific term in English that you can use in the mosquito context, aside from “the back of my thigh”.

Kayak8's avatar

Hamstring(s) is the common word for the muscle group as indicated above. I would say mosquito bite on the posterior thigh.

Scooby's avatar

I agree with @downtide, I said “the back of my thigh” the last time my bowls caught me by suprise…. tooo much Guinness :-/

Schroedes13's avatar

yes, you would say back of the the thigh!

Lightlyseared's avatar

Dorsal thigh.

downtide's avatar

@Scooby aaargh that is definitely TMI!!!

Kayak8's avatar

@Lightlyseared The dorsal thigh would be the top of the front (think dorsal fin in fish). But it would really only be dorsal if you were lying on your back.

Lightlyseared's avatar

@Kayak8 nope. In animals that walk upright it refers to the back of the body. In animals that run, swim or fly it refers to the top. In both cases it is the side with backbone in.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Back of the thigh.

Kardamom's avatar

Since it doesn’t seem to have a proper name, other than back of the thigh, maybe we can give it a new name, like Friedrich or something : )

Friedrich’s got a skeeter bite!

Kayak8's avatar

@Lightlyseared true enough, hard to translate bipeds to quadrapeds.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Friedrich’s going numb from Fluthering.

Schroedes13's avatar

@Lightlyseared no, if you wanted to get extremely technical you would use posterior thigh, not dorsal. The only time I’ve heard of the term dorsal used for humans is when talking about flexing the foot.

Lightlyseared's avatar

@Schroedes13 due to the orientation of the human body anteroposterior and dorsoventral lie on the same axis. The confusion comes from the fact that in animals that stand horizonatally anteroposterior and dorsoventral are on different axises. Dorsal comes from the latin word dorsum which means back so it’s hardly a stretch to use it to refer to the back of the thigh now is it?

Schroedes13's avatar

@Lightlyseared I would concede that they could be the same. But I am saying that it is much more likely for someone to use posterior thigh than dorsal thigh. And as I said before, the only time I’ve heard the term dorsal or it’s derivatives used in my kin classes with humans is in the dorsi-flexion of the foot.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I would say it’s much more likely that people will say…THE BACK OF THE THIGH!

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