Roughly half of people in the world have a vagina between their legs, but the first recorded medical word for this body part didn't arrive on the scene until 1680. Although circles of women all over likely came up with their own names for their anatomy before then, male physicians in Ancient Greece for the most part kept female anatomy under wraps.
Greek physicians typically didn't examine female bodies due to historical taboos and dismissed the vagina and its neighbors as contemptible parts. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, called female genitalia "the shame parts." In 1545, French anatomist Andreas Vesalius followed suit, calling the clitoris "membre honteux," which means "shameful member," according to Rachel Gross, author of the book "Vagina Obscura." Adaptations of the word pudendum, a Latin word that translates to the verb "to be ashamed," can still be found in medical vocabulary today.
