Bodily

boron · Oct 20, 2009

Bodily parts.

I've seen this in Dictionary.com and on Wikipedia, but not really a lot results in Onelook.com, especially not in medical dictionaries.

So, is this commonly used nowadays?

I always use body parts.

alleycat · Oct 20, 2009

I hear bodily functions used all the time, but don't hear the term bodily parts used very often; most of the time it is body parts, or parts of the body.

boron · Oct 20, 2009

OK, does bodily sound obsolete or something..or not?

PeterL · Oct 20, 2009

Bodily parts does sound obsolete, but it may still be in use for some particular meaning. "Body parts" is the term that is in general use. I think that you should be careful about using that phrase in medical uses; it would be better to be specific.

alleycat · Oct 20, 2009

The word bodily by itself isn't obsolete, the term bodily parts in most cases would sound unusual to me. However, bodily organs doesn't sound odd to me.

I'm just going by how it sounds. I don't have any grammar references as to what might be preferred or not preferred in certain sentence structures, or for certain medical related usages.

boron · Oct 20, 2009

I don't intend to use bodily at any time. So, I guess, using body as an adjective in all cases won't sound unusual...

Matera the Mad · Oct 20, 2009

Body is a noun. Bodily is an adjective. (Ever hear of dictionary?) "Body parts" is same usage as "car parts". Depends on what you want to say, how you want to say it. Bodily just isn't used much, there's little need for it.

benbradley · Oct 20, 2009

Apparently, bodily can be either an adjective or an adverb (this does seem to be an unusual word in this respect):
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bodily
From the spelling I would think it's an adverb, but I can easily think of examples of both adjective and adverb:
He did not receive bodily harm.
He was not bodily harmed.

But the use "bodily parts" looks wrong to me. I'd use "body parts."

Dawnstorm · Oct 20, 2009

Google-scholar is in favour of "body parts" over "bodily parts" in a ratio of ~ 48:1. "Bodily parts" exists, but is rare.

Bodily

boron

Health writer

alleycat

Still around

boron

Health writer

PeterL

alleycat

Still around

boron

Health writer

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Dawnstorm

punny user title, here