Under the tongue; -- applied esp., in the higher vertebrates, to the twelfth or last pair of cranial nerves, which are distributed to the base of the tongue.
One of the hypoglossal nerves.
Nerve that supplies the intrinsic muscles, and all but one of the extrinsic muscles, of the tongue.
Cranial Nerve XII, a motor nerve which innervates the anterior third of the tongue.
adjective, Greek hypo = under, and glossa = tongue.
supplies intrinsic muscles of the tongue and other tongue muscles
L. hypoglossus; from hypo, under, glossus, tongue. The hypoglossal nerve was so-named by the Danish anatomist Winslow (1669-1760).