Page 2 of English Words from Latin Clavis ‘Key’
The clavicle is the long, slender, f-shaped collarbone that connects the breastbone with the shoulder blade. The clavicle or collarbone is the most frequently broken bone in the human body. The collarbone is near the skin, and it can be seen and felt easily in most people. The clavicle is designed to support the shoulder, acting like a strut that helps to align the shoulder with the rest of the chest. Some texts say the bone is S-shaped. No, it is f-shaped. Look at the picture below of the clavicle and show me the S.
The etymology of clavicle: Clavicle English < clavicula Latin, twig, little stick, hoopstick, human collarbone < clavis ‘key, bolt, stick’ + -cula Latin diminutive ending, ‘small’
What The Oxford English Dictionary & Merriam-Webster Do Not Tell You About The Origin of This Word: Yes, clavicula meant literally ‘little stick’ or ‘little branch’ but in Latin it also denoted a hoopstick, the water-bent wooden branch that Roman children used to trundle a hoop. This hoopstick was f-shaped like a human collarbone. The wooden stick with a slight hook permitted children to roll the hoop more quickly. That is why early anatomists gave this name to the human collarbone, not because it was a key or key-shaped or S-shaped but because it is f-shaped like a Roman child’s clavicula. Do these sticks survive in museum collections? Yes! All the book-wormish, ivory-towered dictionary writers have to do is: be aware of them; go and look at them; then alter their oh-so-learned, lexicographical mistakes.
An Algerian boy trundles a metal hoop with a hooked wire.
More fascinating word origins await the reader of Casselman's Canadian Words. Click the cover below to sample it. This book is in print and available to order at any book store in the world, no matter what misinform-ation may be presented on book store computers. All my books are in print.
ISBN 1-55278-034-1 224 pages, illustrated, cost approx. $ 20.00 CDN. published by McArthur & Company, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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