Editing Cervix (section)

==Etymology and pronunciation==
The word ''cervix'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɜːr|v|ɪ|k|s}}) came to English from the [[Latin]] ''cervīx'', where it means "neck", and like its Germanic counterpart, it can refer not only to the [[neck]] [of the body] but also to an analogous narrowed part of an object. The cervix uteri (neck of the uterus) is thus the uterine cervix, but in English, the word ''cervix'' used alone usually refers to it. Thus the adjective ''cervical'' may refer either to the neck (as in ''[[cervical vertebrae]]'' or ''[[cervical lymph nodes]]'') or to the uterine cervix (as in ''[[cervical cap]]'' or ''[[cervical cancer]]'').

Latin ''cervix'' came from the [[Proto-Indo-European]] root ''ker-'', referring to a "structure that projects". Thus, the word cervix is linguistically related to the [[English language|English]] word "[[wikt:horn|horn]]", the [[Persian language|Persian]] word for "head" ({{langx|fa|سر}} ''sar''), the Greek word for "head" ({{langx|grc|κορυφή}} ''koruphe''), and the Welsh and Romanian words for "deer" ({{langx|cy|carw}}, Romanian: ''cerb'').<ref name=ETYCERVIX2014>{{cite web | vauthors = Harper D |title= Cervix |url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cervix&allowed_in_frame=0 |work= Etymology Online |access-date= 19 March 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Harper D |title=Horn |url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=horn&allowed_in_frame=0 |work= Etymology Online |access-date= 19 March 2014}}</ref>

The cervix was documented in anatomical literature in at least the time of [[Hippocrates]]; cervical cancer was first described more than 2,000 years ago, with descriptions provided by both [[Hippocrates]] and [[Aretaeus]].<ref name=GASPARINI2009>{{cite journal | vauthors = Gasparini R, Panatto D | title = Cervical cancer: from Hippocrates through Rigoni-Stern to zur Hausen | journal = Vaccine | volume = 27 | issue = Suppl 1 | pages = A4–A5 | date = May 2009 | pmid = 19480961 | doi = 10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.11.069 }}</ref> However, there was some variation in [[word sense]] among early writers, who used the term to refer to both the cervix and the internal uterine orifice.<ref>{{cite book | veditors = Galen IJ | translator-last1 = Johnston I  |title=Galen: On Diseases and Symptoms |year=2011 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-46084-2 |page=247}}</ref> The first attested use of the word to refer to the cervix of the uterus was in 1702.<ref name= ETYCERVIX2014 />