the.com/biceps
The muscle you flex at mirrors; its actual job is turning doorknobs and lifting babies.
means The muscle on the front of the upper arm that bends the elbow and rotates the forearm — your everyday lifting-and-turning workhorse.
from From Latin biceps, meaning 'two-headed,' from bi- 'two' + caput 'head' — because the muscle splits into two separate heads where it attaches at the shoulder. Oddly, 'biceps' is already singular in Latin (the plural would be 'bicipites'), so English speakers who lop off the 's' to talk about one 'bicep' are committing a small, very common grammatical crime.
- name origin
- Latin for two-headed, not plural of bicep
- grammar fact
- bicep is not a word, biceps is singular too
- real function
- rotates your forearm, curling is a side gig
- gym bias
- trained far more than its stronger triceps partner