talus

See also: Talus, tálus, and tālus

English

Alternative forms

• tallus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈteɪləs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪləs

Etymology 1

From Latin tālus.

Noun

talus (plural tali)

1. (anatomy) The bone of the ankle.

Synonyms

• anklebone
• astragalus

 

Derived terms

• talar

 

Translations

anklebone — see anklebone

See also

• bone

 

Etymology 2

From French talus.

Noun

talus (plural taluses)

1. (geology) A sloping heap of fragments of rock lying at the foot of a precipice.
   • 1994, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing:

     By the time he reached the first talus slides under the tall escarpments of the Pilares the dawn was not far to come.

2. (architecture) The slope of an embankment wall, which is thicker at the bottom than at the top.

Coordinate terms

• colluvium
• scree

 

Translations

A sloping heap of fragments of rock lying at the foot of a precipice

• Bulgarian: сипей (bg) (sipej)
• Catalan: talús (ca) m
• Czech: osyp m
• Danish: ur (da) c
• Faroese: urð f
• Irish: scileach m, sceallach m
• Norwegian: ur (no) c

  Nynorsk: steinrøys f

• Russian: о́сыпь (ru) f (ósypʹ)
• Slovak: suť f
• Slovene: melišče n
• Swedish: taluskon c

References

• William Duane, A Military Dictionary, p. 179.
• Talus in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Altus, Aults, Austl., Latus, Tauls, Tulsa, latus, sault

Estonian

Noun

talus

1. inessive singular of talu

French

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly from Gaulish *talutum (“slope”), derived from *talu (“front”), from Proto-Celtic *talu (“front”). Compare Latin talutium (“slope containing gold deposits”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.ly/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

talus m (plural talus)

1. slope, embankment

Descendants

• Catalan: talús
• English: talus
• Galician: talude
• Portuguese: talude
• Spanish: talud
  • → Dutch: talud
  • → English: talud

Further reading

• “talus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• salut

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *tākslos, with multiple theories proposed:

• Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *téh₂g-s-los, from *teh₂g- (“to touch”) (whence tangō).
• Alternatively, cognate with Sanskrit तल (tala, “plane, surface”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)
• From *steh₂- (“to stand”) +‎ *-tleh₂/*-dʰleh₂ (instrument noun suffix), and directly cognate with Welsh sawdl (“heel”). This is phonetically difficult, as it requires an s-less variant of *steh₂-, as well as addition of an unknown and arbitrary suffix *-k-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtaː.lus/, [ˈt̪äːɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈta.lus/, [ˈt̪äːlus]

Noun

tālus m (genitive tālī); second declension

1. (anatomy) the ankle or anklebone (of animals), talus; knucklebone
2. an oblong die rounded at its ends and only marked on its other four sides
3. (figuratively) the heel

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tālus	tālī
Genitive	tālī	tālōrum
Dative	tālō	tālīs
Accusative	tālum	tālōs
Ablative	tālō	tālīs
Vocative	tāle	tālī

Synonyms

• (heel): calx, tālō (Medieval Latin)

Derived terms

• subtel
• tālāris
• tālārius
• tālō; tālōnus (Medieval Latin, from Romance)
• tāxillus

Descendants

• English: talus
• French: talon
• Italian: talo
• ⇒ Italian: talismo
• → Portuguese: tálus

References

• “talus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “talus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• talus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• talus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) the conversation began in this way: sermo inductus a tali exordio
    
• “talus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[2]
• “talus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “talus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin