ankle

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English

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Human ankle

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English ankel, ancle, ankyll, from Old English ancol (compare anclēow (“ankle”) > Modern English anclef, ancliff, ancley), from Proto-West Germanic *ankul, from Proto-Germanic *ankulaz (“ankle”); akin to Icelandic ökkla, ökli, Danish and Swedish ankel, Dutch enklaauw, enkel, German Enkel, Old Norse akka, Old Frisian anckel, and perhaps Old High German encha, ancha (“thigh, shin”), from the Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“ankle, joint”).

Compare with Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “limb”), अङ्गुरि (aṅguri, “finger”), Latin angulus. Compare haunch and Greek prefix ἀγκυλο- (ankulo-, “joint, crooked, bent”). Doublet of angulus and angle.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈæŋ.kəl/
  • audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -æŋkəl

Noun

ankle (plural ankles)

  1. The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ankle (third-person singular simple present ankles, present participle ankling, simple past and past participle ankled)

  1. (slang) To walk.
    • 1948, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 1, in Seraph on the Suwanee‎, New York: HarperPerennial, published 1991, page 5:
      Arvay’s tearful speech followed the usual pattern, and everybody said it was just fine. There had been nothing about the heathens of China, India and Africa wallowing around on the heavenly chairs, nor ankling up and down the golden streets.
    • 1951, Anthony Buckeridge, Jennings’ Little Hut, London: Collins, 1973, Chapter 15, p. 178,
      Supposing we all ankled over to the huts
    • 1966, P. G. Wodehouse, Plum Pie, London: Everyman, 2007, Chapter 6, p. 158,
      He ankled round, accordingly, to her house and his ring at the bell was answered by Wilberforce, her butler
    • 2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 275:
      After a while he got up and ankled his way down the corridor and met Penny coming out of the toilet.
  2. (cycling) To cyclically angle the foot at the ankle while pedaling, to maximize the amount of work applied to the pedal during each revolution.

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