phrase requests - Word for "the entire back part of the body"?


When we lie down, the "back part of the body" is in contact with the bed. It includes the heels, the calves, the backside, the back, and the back of the neck, and the back of the head etc.


How do we refer to the entire "back part" of the body?



Answer



In biology and medicine, the words that describe the sides of a body are posterior, anterior, dorsal and ventral [image source]:


                               drwaing of fish with labels for directions of body directions (posterior, anterior, dorsal, ventral


So, technically, the back side of a human would be called the dorsal side. However, in humans, because posterior also means "back", you can also refer to the posterior side to mean back side:


                                   drwaing of human with same labels


As explained in wikipedia:



In human anatomical usage, anterior refers to the "front" of the individual, and is synonymous with ventral, other than in the head. Similarly, posterior, refers to the "back" of the subject, and is synonymous with dorsal, other than in the head (see Table 3). When referring to the body as a whole the terms "dorsal" and "ventral" are used infrequently in human anatomy. However, they are applied commonly in referring to limb position.



This is because the primate anus is actually on the dorsal side but this is not something that applies to all species. In fact, I can't think of any non-primates with a dorsal anus.


So, in general anatomy, to refer to the back side, you would use dorsal but for humans you can use posterior. Note that the word posterior by itself is a polite way to refer to the buttocks (from dictionary.com):




  1. noun


the hinder parts or rump of the body; buttocks



Therefore, if you want to use posterior to refer to the entire rear side of a human body, qualify it by writing something like the posterior side and not simply the posterior.



Another option which can be used in normal conversation/writing is rear (from the online Merriam-Webster):



1 : the back part of something: as


b : the part of something located opposite its front



Note that, again, I hurt my rear will be understood to mean I hurt my buttocks so you should qualify it:



The rear side of the body.



or



The rear of the body.



But not just



His rear.



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