† ˈcannel-bone Obs.
Forms; 4–7 canel-, 5 canelle-, 5–7 cannell-, 6 cainell-, 6–7 canell-, 7 canal-, kannell-, cannel-.
[f. canel, kanel, kenel ‘neck’; see cannel n.1 5, and channel n., whence also the form channel-bone.]
1. The ‘neck-bone’: perh. properly the cervical vertebræ, which form the medullary canal. (But it is not easy to know in what sense early writers used it. Quotations c 1420, 1593, may belong to sense 2; and the Dict. explanations of 17–18th c. are of uncertain authority.)
| c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 943 Hyt [her neck] was white smothe streght, and pure flatte Wythouten hole or canel-boon. c 1420 Anturs Arth. xl. 12 The squrd squappes in toe His canel-bone allsoe, And cleuet his schild clene. 1557 K. Arthur (Copland) iv. xxviii, His swerd kerued him unto his canell boone. 1593 Golding Ovid's Met. 284 [He] thrust him through the place in which the necke and shoulders joine, He groand, and from his cannell-bone could scarcely pull the stake. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Cannel bone, the Neck or Throat-bone. 1664 Evelyn tr. Freart's Archit. 149 The cannel bone of the Throat. 1678–96 Phillips, Cannel-bone, the neck-bone or wind-pipe. 1721 Bailey, Canel-bone, the Neck or Throat Bone, so named, because of its resembling a Canal. |
2. The collar-bone or clavicle.
| c 1420 [see prec.]. 1470 Henry Wallace v. 823 Baith cannell bayne [1st ed. 1570 collar-bane] and schuldir blaid in twa, Throuch the mid cost, the gud suerd gart he ga. 1548 Patten Exp. Scot. 47 (Jam.) The Lorde Hume..had a fall from his horse, and burst so the canell-bone of his neck, that he was fayne to be caryed straight to Edenborowe. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 409 His cannell bone was broken which knitteth the two shoulders together in the forepart. 1611 Cotgr., Clavicules, the kannell bones, channell bones, necke-bones, craw-bones; extending (on each side one) from the bottome of the throat vnto the top of the shoulder. 1656 W. Dugard Gate Lat. Unl. §219. 61 The two Shoulder-blades (which the Cannel-bones, called in birds, furculæ, that is little forks, couple to the Chest). |
3. ? The haunch-bone or ilium of an animal.
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868) 145 Betwene þe hyndur leggis [of þe cony] breke þe canelle boone. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. clvii. 463 The vpper thigh bone goeth into the pot of the Cannel-bone. |