Genual

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Of or relating to the knee, the joint between the thigh and the lower leg
2. Describing anything connected with the knee or the region around it in the body
3. Pertaining to the knee joint, especially in anatomical or medical contexts

Etymology: "Genual" describes anything relating to the knee, and its roots reach back to a single Latin noun: "genū", meaning knee. The English adjective was built from New Latin "genuālis", a scientific-style formation, which means it was coined in a learned, post-classical setting rather than inherited from ancient speech. Latin speakers never used "genuālis" for a knee; anatomists and writers of technical Latin produced it by adding the adjective ending "-alis" to "genū". The result is a word that reads as ordinary medical vocabulary but is essentially a deliberate construction. Its Latin base also sits behind other knee terms in English, such as "genuflect", which describes bending the knee, so the same root turns up in both everyday and specialist language.