Ankle

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈæŋ.kəl/

Definitions

1. The joint connecting the foot to the leg, allowing up-and-down movement when walking
2. The joint that links the foot with the lower leg, enabling articulation and movement during tasks such as walking and running
3. The joint situated between the foot and the lower leg, facilitating movement and stability essential for various physical activities

Etymology: The ankle is one of the few body-part names in English that has a sibling word you would never guess: "angle." Both descend from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning something bent or hooked, and in Proto-Germanic the ankle was simply the bending joint of the body. The same idea of a crooked, bent shape also sits behind the Latin "angulus," which gave English "angle" as a doublet, so the two words split off from one shared source and went their separate ways. The Old English form was "ancol," and it passed into Middle English as "ankel," "ancle," and "ankyll," spellings that show how unsettled the word was before English spelling settled. Its relatives are widespread across Germanic languages, including Dutch "enkel," German "Enkel," and Swedish "ankel," which all point back to the same ancient joint-word.

Synonyms: joint, tarsus