Hucklebones

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A traditional game involving the throwing of small objects, typically associated with children
2. a set of flat stones or similar items used in games
3. a term for the bones in the back of the hand, often linked to playful activities

Etymology: Hucklebones is a plural noun, and it is the old name for knucklebones, the game played with small bones (originally sheep's anklebones) tossed and caught by children and adults. The word was formed in English by a sound change and a reshaping: "knuckle" and "huckle" are both forms of the same root, and "huckle" survived in dialect and in the older name for the hip or haunch, "huckle-bone," meaning the hipbone. The bones of the hand and the joints of the fingers were called "knuckles" from Middle English, probably related to the diminutive of "knee" and "knob." Hucklebones, then, is essentially a variant that kept the older word for the hip joint and applied it to the game. Early English writers used it for the game itself, and the same bones were used in dice-like play across Europe and the ancient world, long before the English name appeared.