cheville

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See also: chevillé

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French cheville. Doublet of clavicle.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ʃəˈviː/, /ʃəˈviːl/

Noun[edit]

cheville (plural chevilles)

  1. (poetry) A word or phrase whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced.
    • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing:
      The genius of prose rejects the cheville no less emphatically than the laws of verse; and the cheville, I should perhaps explain to some of my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike a balance in the sound.
    • 1910, Patrick Weston Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, chapter 5:
      The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by the constant and wearisome recurrence of these chevilles.

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Old French cheville, from Vulgar Latin *cavicla, dissimilated and syncopated form of Classical Latin clāvicula, diminutive of clāvis (key). Doublet of clavicule, a borrowing.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ʃə.vij/, (informal) /ʃfij/
  • (file)

Noun[edit]

cheville f (plural chevilles)

  1. ankle
  2. dowel, peg
  3. wall plug
  4. (poetry) cheville

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Old French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Vulgar Latin *cāvicla < *cāvicula, from Classical Latin clāvicula, diminutive of clāvis (key).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

cheville oblique singularf (oblique plural chevilles, nominative singular cheville, nominative plural chevilles)

  1. ankle (anatomy)

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • French: cheville
  • Norman: g'vil'ye, gvil; quevîle