Nuchal
/ˈnjuː.kəl/noun
Relating to the back of the neck.
Did you know?Nuchal comes from Latin nucha, a learned borrowing ultimately from Arabic nukhāʿ, a word for the spinal marrow or nape region that traveled into medicine through medieval scholarship.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic / Arabic
Arabic
nukhāʿ
“spinal marrow; the nape/back-of-neck region”
Medieval Latin
Latin
nucha
“the nape of the neck”
Late Middle Ages
French
nuque
“the nape of the neck”
16th Century
English
nuchal
“pertaining to the nape of the neck”
Modern English
English
nuchal
“relating to the back of the neck”