Short ‘n’ Sweet –
except for feet
We’re
not going to tiptoe around today. It’s all about the hands. Although feet are
by many, considered the most important foundation of our bodies, when defined,
they get the shaft.
thenar (thēʹnär) n. – the palm of the hand or, sometimes,
the sole of the foot; 2) the bulge at base of the thumb.* [WW #53]
“Sometimes”
– in reference to the good folks at *Webster
– you have to wonder at their choice
of wording. After all, how can thenar
only sometimes be the sole of the
foot – it is, or it isn’t! Which is it? Jus’ askin’.
Perhaps
since the 5th edition of their New World College Dictionary they discovered the ambiguous definition of thenar, as applied to feet, could be
(gasp!) wrong. Neither their digital definition,
nor Wikipedia’s explanation
(albeit disputed) mention the foot pad. Huh.
Conclusion:
Like apparently everything else in our lives once thought “set in stone,” our facts are
mutable and ever-changing, and our “experts”
can be mistaken …
Word of the Week: THENAR. Can you fit it into your next writing?
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