Phalangal

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Of or belonging to the phalanges, the small bones that make up the fingers and toes
2. Concerning or affecting the phalanges, the series of bones forming the digits of hands and feet
3. Pertaining to the phalanges, the individual bones that constitute the skeletal structure of fingers and toes

Etymology: Phalangal is an adjective meaning of or relating to a phalanx, the bone of a finger or toe. The Greek "phalanx" originally named a battle formation of soldiers locked shoulder to shoulder in close ranks, and English borrowed the word for that military sense before anatomists applied it to the small bones of the digits. The bones were compared to the tightly packed ranks of a phalanx, and the adjective "phalangal" simply adds the English suffix "-al," meaning "relating to," to that anatomical noun. Because the word is a straightforward formation from an existing noun, its meaning stays close to the body part it describes. Anyone looking at a hand can see the connection, since the fingers are built from a row of these segments, each one fitting against the next much as soldiers in a line did.

Synonyms: phalangeal