wristbone

English

Etymology

wrist +‎ bone

Noun

wristbone (plural wristbones)

1. A bone in the wrist; carpal.
   • 1634, Henry Peacham, The Gentlemans Exercise. Or, An exquisite practise, as well for drawing all manner of Beasts in their true Portraitures: as also the making of all kinds of colours‎^[1], London: I. Marriott, Book I, p. 28:

     […] I will […] shew you onely such eminences which by shadow must be necessarily expressed: after you have done the neck, you are to expresse the wing or upper part of the shoulder by shadowing it underneath, the brawne of the arme must appeare full, shadowed on one side, then shew the wrist bone thereof, & the meeting of the veines in that place […]

   • 1741, Uncredited translator, A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary by Jean-Baptiste du Halde, London: Edward Cave, “The Art of Medicine among the Chinese,” p. 191,^[2]

     He who is to feel the Pulse, takes the left Hand of the Patient if a Man, the right Hand of a Woman. […] He begins by placing the middle Finger exactly where the Wrist-Bone locks with the Cubitus, then claps the next Fingers, one on each side.

   • 1895, John Bloundelle-Burton, chapter 16, in The Hispaniola Plate‎^[3], New York: Cassell:

     Their bodies were found frequently—all skeletons, like unto the others—and in some cases ’twas strange to see how they strived to preserve what they most esteemed of value. Thus, round one, a female, as again the hair close by denoted, which was red, slightly fleck’t with grisel, there was on the bony neck a great rope of diamonds, each as big as a nut, that all sparkled and glistened in the water, and round each wristbone there was the same in bracelets.

   • 2009, J. M. Coetzee, “Adriana”, in Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life, London: Harvill Secker:

     In the next bed, I remember (there were at least a dozen beds crammed into a ward that should have held six), there was an old man so meagre, so cadaverous that his wristbones and the beak of his nose seemed to want to break through his skin.

Anagrams

• Brownites, browniest