Anatomy suffixes?

Question

Here are some suffixes I want to know their meaning:

-ium: trapezium (carpal bone)
-ius: trapezius (column muscle)
-ous: Talous and calcanous (tarsal bone)
-alis: Acromialis, Ulnaris (shoulder proccess and bone of forearm)
-ate: Capitate, Hamate, lunate (carpal bones)

What is the difference between tuber and tubercle?

How to know where to use these suffixes, they are randomly given or it has to do with location or something?

Answer 1

These names originate from latin ^[1].

• -ium is the second declension of a noun in accusative (trapezium refers to a bone thus is a noun)
• -ius is a genitive adjective suffix (trapezius is the name of a muscle thus being an adjective)
• you have written them wrong: talus and calcaneus is correct. They are both nominative nouns.
• there is no -alis suffix; it is either -is or -lis. They are adjective suffixes.
• there is no -ate suffix. Those are nouns.

Tuber is the latin word for tuberosity. It is the quality or condition of a tubercle (adjective) ^[2].

References:

1. Wikipedia, Latin declension
2. The Free Dictionary by Farlex, Tubercle