Spinal means having to do with the backbone. Spinal injury, the spinal cord, spinal surgery.
The spinal cord is the bundle of nerves running down inside the vertebrae, carrying signals between the brain and the body — and damage to it is what makes spinal injury so serious. A spinal anaesthetic is injected into the space around it and numbs everything below. Spinal tap is the informal name for a lumbar puncture. Note spine, from which it comes, and vertebral, which is the more technical adjective.
1adjectivespinalHaving to do with the backbone.
“The spinal injury was low down and the damage was limited.”
spinal is a quality relating to the backbone.
Latin spinalis comes from spina, a thorn or backbone. The Romans named the spine after a row of thorns, and every clinical word in the family carries the thorn inside it.
Latin
spīnālis — of or belonging to the spine
English, today
spinal
Borrowed from Latin spīnālis (“of or belonging to the spine”), from spīna + -ālis. by surface analysis, spine + -al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA