Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Ischium
/ˈɪskiəm/noun
The lower rear bone of the pelvis, one of the three that fuse into the hip.
The Greek roots
ἰσχίον
iskhíon
hip joint, hip socket
Literally: “hip joint”
Follow a root:ἰσχίον5 words
The story of the word
ἰσχίον named the hip joint. The ischium is the part of the pelvis that takes your weight when you sit, and its thickened tuberosity is what trainers call the sit bone. Sciatica is the same Greek word taken through Latin with the first vowel worn away: ἰσχιαδικός, of the hip, became sciaticus, and the nerve that runs down the back of the leg still carries the hip's name.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
sciaticasciaticischial
In a sentence
The hamstring tears off the ischium, which is why the bruise appears so far down the leg.