Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Tarsus
/ˈtɑːrsəs/noun
The group of small bones forming the ankle and the back of the foot.
The Greek roots
ταρσός
tarsós
flat surface, flat of the foot
Literally: “flat drying frame”
Follow a root:ταρσός2 words
The story of the word
ταρσός was first a flat wicker frame, the kind used for drying cheese, and from there any broad flat thing, including the flat of the foot. Anatomy took the flat sense twice: the tarsus is the block of ankle bones, and the tarsal plate is the stiff strip that gives an eyelid its shape. Entomologists use it for the end segments of an insect's leg, and the tarsier is named for the length of its ankle bones.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
tarsalmetatarsaltarsier
In a sentence
The fracture ran through the tarsus, which is why she was in a boot for months.