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stranger
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stranger
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I refer to the Word-A-Day for February 9th, 2010: prevaricate, and the comment under etymology that (latin) varus meant (english) knock-knee. Medical folks know that (latin) valgus means knock-knee, and (latin) varus means bow-leg. Knock-knee refers to legs bent in, while bow-leg refers to legs curving out.
Regards!
M.D.
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Joined: Oct 2006
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stranger
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stranger
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Today i used this action in my daily routine, just to avert a fight i made things ambiguous, how silly or surprising is it to do something and find a word to be mentioned in your inbox for it. Prevaricate happens mostly in our life..... mostly to be on the safer side.....
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quite confusing. Knock-knee I think we would call X-legs and bow-leg I think O-legs, in non medical terms. I still try to figure out from which angle this problem should be looked at. With X the upper part of the legs are straight, but from the knee down they do not exactly curve out, but just go askew, no?
With bow-legs, do they curve out or rather curve in?
() = bow-legs? /\ = Knock-knee?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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think of riding a horse -- cowboys get bowlegged () from all that horse-riding they do!
-cowboy joe
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sure, but would you call this () curving in or curving out?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sure, but would you call this () curving in or curving out? out. "I love to go swimming with bow-legged women, And swim between their legs, Swim between their legs..."
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have seen reference to bowlegged coming from "bull" legged, which to me would imply a roundness - O (either the shape of the bull [cross-section] or the result of riding one.
arbitrary it may be, but bowlegged refers to the legs bowing out at the knee.
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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old hand
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Interesting word. I've always described the action as being something akin to lying or evasiveness or concealing but now I know the term. Prevaricate. Would you be being prevaricacious or prevaricatory whilst actioning this word?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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actually, W3 suggests prevaricatory and prevaricative as adjectival forms.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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You're certainly free to interpret bow-legged or even curving out, any way you like. The standard understanding, at least in the US, is that bow-legged is ().
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I refer to the Word-A-Day for February 9th, 2010: prevaricate, and the comment under etymology that (latin) varus meant (english) knock-knee. Medical folks know that (latin) valgus means knock-knee, and (latin) varus means bow-leg. Knock-knee refers to legs bent in, while bow-leg refers to legs curving out.
Regards!
M.D. My Collins Gem Latin Dictionary agrees with Anu. Valgus, 'bow-legged'. Varus, 'knocked-kneed'. AHD4 seems to more agree with you, giving, in its etymology of prevaricate, varicare, 'to straddle' and for [i]varus[/i it only says 'bent'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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??
varicare, 'to straddle'; you know, like in riding a horse. ()
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Even though straddle seems close to saddle etymologically it has nothing to do with it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Medical folks know that (latin) valgus means knock-knee, and (latin) varus means bow-leg. In Latin, valgus means 'bow-legged' ( link) and varus means 'knock-kneed' ( link). The online medical dictionaries I consulted preserve the original Latin meanings, but at least one said that the two words meanings were often reversed.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>often reversed.
established by error in some old source and then incessantly inculcated, I suppose?
-joe (source errors 'Я us) friday
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I don't know about Latin medicine but in Canadian medical terminology valgus is generally considered knock-kneed. Unless it is halux.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tried to get wise about halux. But they had only this:
hal·lux (hlks) KEY
NOUN:
pl. hal·lu·ces (hly-sz, hl-) KEY
The innermost or first digit on the hind foot of certain mammals. The human hallux is commonly called the big toe.
A homologous digit of a bird, reptile, or amphibian. In birds, it is often directed backward.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Take the discussion down a joint or three: Hallux valgus is commonly known as a bunion. The two affected big-toe joints would bang into each other if you walked without shoes. Now move the image up to your knees. That's knock-kneed, for the analogous reason. The officiousofficial term is genu valgus. That's "genu" as genuflect (= "knee bend"). The bow-legged, concave-in, knee is genu varus. There is a twisted consistency in that medical terminology.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, that's really clear to see. ( the X-ray )That is what we in every day language call X-legs.;-) I didn't know that toes can be so too.
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old hand
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old hand
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Bandy legged - is also bow legged from the hip I always thought.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah, where'd that word bandy come from, anyway?
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old hand
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old hand
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From the OED:
bandy (v.)Bandy was a 17c. Irish game, precursor of field hockey, played with curved a stick (also called a bandy), hence bandy-legged (1680s).
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