Phalanx does not mean finger to most people until they start learning medicine. It’s cruft.

Phalanx also means finger to most students of history. It is, after all, Greek for Finger (secondary to Aristotle dubbing the bones so).

What's your point? It seems to be that medical terminology (or the expert body of knowledge that distinguishes someone with anatomical or medical knowledge from the layperson) is an artificial construct which imposes undue restrictions on the easy transfer of this knowledge - guild behaviour.

Every realm of knowledge has its own language which must be learned in order to be proficient. In briefly reading your other replies in this thread, it seems like you feel that computing and programming don't have these restrictions - that is absolutely not true, just ask anyone who has been trying to learn programming themselves but is stuck on the difference between a method and a function (only to find out they are the same thing).

It is not possible to be an expert without gathering the knowledge, the language, and the real understanding necessary to partake in the field. Anything else is simple arrogance, to assume that any specialised field that people spend decades learning, is actually just arcane crud and cruft that disguises the simplicity hidden within

I think you’re getting the wrong impression. I find medical papers tend to be easier to read as a non specialist than recent matimatics papers.

Math however is trying to be as clear as possible and more elegant notation generally though not always wins over time. Mathematics don’t still use Roman Numerals even though they worked.

PS: Languages change over time, programmers dropped the term subroutine. This can look messy, but it’s benifical over time.

I may be getting the wrong impression - but what is the point you’re trying to make - and did you just choose a shitty example? The left, thumb, Two, carries so many problems - do you mean palmar or volar surface? Medial or lateral? I can accurately discribe a lesion at the base of the left thenar eminence and everyone who has studied anatomy anywhere in the world will understand the exact part of the body I am talking about. In another more specific example, I might describe petechial haemorrhages proximal to the iliocaecal valve. These words aren’t in common usage but again, every medically trained human in the world would know exactly what I am describing.

I understand your last comment about languages changing over time (technical languages) - medicine is no different. See for instance the Dukes grading of bowel cancer, now largely superceeded by TNM Grading which carries specific histological and pathological meanings (as dukes does) but is applicable to all cancers.