Chine

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /t͡ʃaɪn/

Definitions

1. A prominent ridge formed by a vertebral column is often referred to as such, while also describing a cut of meat incorporating the backbone, and it can denote a geological feature with steep slopes or escarpments
2. The raised ridge along the back formed by the spine of an animal ; a meat portion that includes the backbone and neighboring muscles ; a natural landform characterized by abrupt drops and steep inclines
3. A spinal crest visible on certain animals marking the vertebral line ; a primal cut from an animal carcass featuring the backbone ; a sharp escarpment or ridge found in geological landscapes

Etymology: The most striking thing about "chine" is that it names two unrelated things that happen to sound the same. The backbone sense comes from Old French "eschine", which passed the word along from a Frankish form related to the old Germanic word for shin. That makes it a doublet of "shin": two words that split off from one root, one entering English through French and one directly. The other "chine" is older and far more physical. In Old English, "ċinu" meant a crack, fissure or chasm, and it came from a verb meaning to split, burst or crack open. A ridge along an animal's spine, seen as a jagged line of projecting bone, shares that picture of something broken into a long, sharp edge. Two separate Middle English words, one meaning "crack" and another meaning "backbone", eventually collided in spelling and sound. The backbone sense is the one you meet in butchery and cookery, where a "chine" is a cut of meat including part of the spine.

Synonyms: backbone, spine, ridge