phalanx
(ˈfælæŋks)
Pl. ˈphalanxes, ‖ phalanges (fəˈlændʒiːz). Also 7 falanx.
[a. L. phalanx, -angem, Gr. ϕάλαγξ, -αγγα.]
1. Gr. Antiq. A line or array of battle; spec. a body of heavy-armed infantry drawn up in close order, with shields joined and long spears overlapping; especially famous in the Macedonian army. Hence b. sometimes applied to a compact body of troops in later times.
| 1553 Brende Q. Curtius iv. (1565) 95 The square (whiche the Macedons call phalanx). a 1619 Fletcher Bonduca ii. iv, Youth and fire Like the fair breaking of a glorious day Guilded their Falanx. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iii. vi. II. 63 The Macedonians..; Their Phalanx is describ'd by Polybius to be a square Battail of Pike-men, consisting of sixteen in Flank, and five-hundred in Front. 1766 Gibbon Decl. & F. (1869) I. i. 26 The strength of the phalanx was unable to contend with the activity of the legion. 1838–42 Arnold Hist. Rome xxxvii. (1846) II. 491 The phalanx when once broken became wholly helpless. 1874 Reynolds John Bapt. vi. i. 367 Amid the serried phalanxes of Rome. |
| b. 1814 Columbian Centinel (Boston) 15 June 2/3 On Monday the Charlestown Warren Phalanx paraded. 1862 Grattan Beaten Paths I. 185 Noble veterans.., the remnant of those phalanxes which maintained the pride and power of England in so many a hard-fought field. |
| attrib. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. 71 The phalanx order of battle was one of the earliest improvements in the art of war. 1861 Musgrave By-Roads 305 They massed them in phalanx form. |
2. a. transf. A compact body of persons or animals (more rarely things) massed or ranged in order, as for attack, defence, united movement, etc.
| 1733 Pope Ess. Man iii. 108 Who forms the phalanx [of migrating storks], and who points the way? 1785 Cowper Needless Alarm 48 The sheep..All huddling into phalanx, stood and gaz'd. 1837 W. H. Ainsworth Crichton I. 237 A dense phalanx of cavaliers and dames of every age and rank. 1891 ‘L. Falconer’ Mlle. Ixe 25 Sheltered from the north by high red walls and a phalanx of elms. |
b. fig. A number or set of persons, etc. banded together for a common purpose, esp. in support of or in opposition to some cause; a ‘united front’; the union or combination of such (in phr. in phalanx, unitedly, in combination, ‘solidly’).
| 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 239 To encounter this Hispanised Camelion Parsons, with all his Africanian phalanges and Iesuiticall forces. 1772 Pol. Reg. XI. 168 The ministerial phalanx, it seems, is to be irreparably weakened by your loss. 1817 Jas. Mill Brit. India III. i. 32 On this occasion, the crown lawyers opposed in phalanx. |
c. In Fourier's social organization, A community of persons living together in a phalanstery, q.v.
| 1843 [see phalansterial]. |
3. Anat. and Zool. Each of the bones, arranged in series or rows, forming the distal segment of the skeleton of each limb, beyond the metacarpus or metatarsus; each bone of the digits (fingers and toes, or homologous parts). Usu. in pl. phalanges (rarely phalanxes).
| 1693 tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Phalanx, the Order and Rank, observed in the Finger-Bones. 1741 Monro Anat. Bones (ed. 3) 271 Their Articulations with the first Phalanx of the Fingers is by Enarthrosis. Ibid. 274 Three Phalanges. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 347 It was necessary to amputate the phalanges of the fingers. 1808 Barclay Muscular Motions 375 Certain animals can, without clavicles, lay hold of objects with the digital phalanxes. 1872 Mivart Elem. Anat. iv. 152 Each digit consists of three rather elongated bones termed phalanges. |
b. Entom. Each joint of the tarsus of an insect.
c. Anat. Each of certain processes in the organ of Corti in the internal ear; a phalangar process.
4. Bot. A bundle of stamens united by their filaments.
| 1770 Phil. Trans. LX. 519 The stamina..divided into five distinct phalanges, or bundles. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §3 (ed. 6) 205 Phalanges or united stamen-clusters. |
5. Taxonomy. A group in classification, higher than a genus, but of no fixed grade.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 313 We should find it difficult..to place many that lie at the out-skirts of this phalanx. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvi. (1794) 209 These are of another phalanx, having five petals to the corolla. |
† 6. = phalangium 1. Obs.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents (1658) 769 The Phalangium or Phalanx Spider. Ibid., This kinde of Phalanx is often found among Spiders webs. |
Hence ˈphalanxed (-ŋkst) a., drawn up or ranged in a phalanx; also in Comb., as close-phalanxed.
| 1766 G. Canning Anti-Lucretius iv. 245 The close-phalanx'd order of its course. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxxx, Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe. 1904 A. Austin in Standard 13 Oct. 2/5 A pall of smoke penetrated only by phalanxed chimneys. |