Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Phalanx
/ˈfeɪlæŋks/noun
A body of troops in close formation, and also any of the small bones of the fingers and toes.
The Greek roots
φάλαγξ
phálanx
line of battle, roller
Literally: “line of battle”
Follow a root:φάλαγξ1 word
The story of the word
A φάλαγξ was infantry locked shield to shield, but Greek used the same word for a log or roller and for the bones between the finger joints. Galen's medical writing carried the anatomical sense into Latin, and English anatomy took it up in the 17th century. Both meanings share one picture, of things drawn up in ranks; you have fourteen phalanges in each hand.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
phalangephalangesphalanstery
In a sentence
The X-ray showed a clean break in the middle phalanx of the ring finger.