Flanked

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /flæŋkt/

Definitions

1. Surrounded on both sides or located adjacent to various entities or objects provides a sense of being enclosed or accompanied within a spatial context
2. Placed on either side of a particular object or person to form a bordering arrangement
3. Situated alongside something or someone, often providing protection or accompaniment

Etymology: "Flanked" is the past form of "flank," and the verb's root meaning is startlingly physical: a word for the soft part of an animal's side, not a military position. Its ancestor was a Germanic word meaning "bend" or "curve," and the same root gave the English "lank," meaning slender or limp. The body part was named for its curve, the rounded hip and ribs between the back and belly. The move from body to battlefield came through French. Old French "flanc" kept the sense of the side of an animal or person, and English borrowed it in the Late Old English period, when it still meant the flesh of the side. Only later did "flank" come to describe the sides of an army or a ship, and from there the idea of guarding or standing at someone's side.

Synonyms: bordered, surrounded, lined, enclosed, adjoined

Antonyms: isolated, separated, divided, detached, disjoined