Men could lose their Adam's apples, while women will gain an area between their breasts, in a revised body parts vocabulary proposed by a leading anatomist.
Dr Liberato Di Dio will launch the new terminology in Sao Paulo this week with the promise: "If you have a cumbersome word, we'll get rid of it." According to Reuters, top of Dr Di Dio's hit-list of confusing terminology is the Adam's apple - to be renamed the "laryngeal prominence" to reflect the fact that some women have one too. "There is the Biblical connotation that it was the apple that Eve gave to Adam and got stuck in his throat," Dr Di Dio explained.
The new term to describe the space between women's breasts is the "inter mammary sulcus". Brazilian women are less fortunate. They will have to rename their breasts completely because the Portuguese word, seio, could lead to confusion with the paranasal sinuses. Henceforth, they should refer to their breasts as "mama", the equivalent of the English term, "mammary glands".
While it may read like an April Fool's prank, Dr Di Dio and his fellow anatomists are in earnest about the new vocabulary. Dr Di Dio (77) had a distinguished career as an anatomist in the US and is a former president of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists. Its committee on anatomical terminology has spent eight years rooting out outdated words.
Anatomists hope the new vocabulary will facilitate communication across national boundaries.
An idea of the need for standardisation can be glimpsed in the confusion about the area where the small intestine meets the large. It is termed Rondelet's valve by the French, it's called Bahin's valve by the Swiss, Varolius's valve by Italians and Tulp's valve by the Dutch.
In truth, it's not a valve at all, according to Dr Di Dio. In fact, it acts more like a nipple - hence its new name: ileal papilla.
If everything goes according to plan, the full vocabulary will be published in English and Latin by November and will be taught in schools and universities from next year.