paxwax

English

Alternative forms

• packwax

Etymology

For Old English faxvax (“hair”) (akin to Old High German fahs) + weaxan (“to grow”). See wax (“to grow”), and compare faxed, pectinate.

Noun

paxwax (plural not attested)

1. (anatomy) A strong ligament of the back of the neck in quadrupeds, connecting the back of the skull with dorsal spines of the cervical vertebrae; the nuchal ligament.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “paxwax”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)