Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 May 13

= May 13 =

Latera capitis
What would this mean? I tried google and wiktionary, but it only gave flanks. Sides of head? :( :D Splićanin (talk) 21:52, 13 May 2020 (UTC)
 * We may need some context to help you with this. I immediately thought of the American expression "to hit someone upside of their head", but that may not be relevant. -- Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:59, 13 May 2020 (UTC)


 * This phrase turns up a few times in Fredrik Hasselqvist´s decription of animals in his Iter Palestinum. I think the OP is correct in their assumption, but somebody knowledgable in Latin and anatomy should verify the translation from the text available in Google Books.  His descriptions have also been translated into English as Voyages and Travels in the Levant.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:03, 14 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Also George Shaw writing in 1790 about a type of Acarus mite says in Vivarium Naturæ Or the Naturalist's Miscellany (p. 35) "Oculi - duo ad latera capitis", presumably "eyes - two on the sides of the head". Alansplodge (talk) 10:21, 14 May 2020 (UTC)


 * PS: There are also two short muscles between atlas and occipital bone called Rectus capitis lateralis.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:21, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm humbled by your input. Thanks a bunch. Unfortunately there is no context whatsoever, just a phrase to translate. Splićanin (talk) 11:43, 14 May 2020 (UTC)


 * It does refer to eyes on the side of the head (monocular vision) instead of in front (binocular vision). Sounds like something from Linnaeus although I don't know if he used that phrase specifically. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:45, 14 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, he uses it to describe the scabies mite as Oculi duo ad latera, or at least William James Erasmus Wilson says he does in On Diseases of the Skin (1857) p. 623. Alansplodge (talk) 16:40, 14 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Latin latus, plural latera, means "side", "flank:, and the primary meaning of caput, genitive capitis, is "head". Together, it indeed means "sides of the head". This meaning is not specific to eyes; human ears are also found at the sides of the head. There does not even have to be an anatomical context. --Lambiam 18:38, 14 May 2020 (UTC)