“Hair up!” in Latin

Let’s learn some hair-related Latin terms: piloerection (“hair standing up”) and arrector pili (“raiser of hair”). Piloerection occurs in humans, cats and many other animals.

The arrector pili are muscles under the skin of all areas of the body where hair is present. When the muscles contract (due to fear, excitement and so on), the hairs stand on end. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the most developed of a cat’s arrector pili muscles are on the back and tail.