Number Words and the Human Body

The roots of the words we use for numbers vary around the world, but they often originated in terms that correspond to our body parts. That shouldn't be surprising, since our base ten (decimal) counting system stems from the fact that we have ten fingers. But there are other number systems that arose naturally, that also relate to parts of our bodies. Linguist Arika Okrent and illustrator Sean O’Neill tell us about the anatomical origins of number language. (via Laughing Squid)