† ˈfocile Anat. Obs.
Forms: 5 fosile, 6 faucylle, focyll, focil, 6–8 focile.
[ad. med.Lat. focile. Cf. Pr. focil, Fr. focile, Pg. and It. focile.
The med.Lat. word was a transferred use of focīle steel for striking fire (see fusil). The Arabian anatomists applied the word zand, one of a pair of sticks for producing fire by friction (dual zandān), to these bones on account of their shape; the Lat. translators rendered this by focile as being the word most nearly equivalent in literal sense.]
One of the bones of the fore-arm or of the leg. greater focile, the ulna or tibia. lesser (or over) focile, the radius or fibula.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 157 Þe þombe..conteyneþ his firste boon wiþ þe extremite of þe ouer fosile. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. D ij b, The faucylles or forke bones. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. (1586) 281 The great focile is that which susteineth the arme. 1638 A. Read Treat. Chirurg. ii. 15 [A] Taylor..fractured both the focils of the legge, a little below the knee. 1721 Naish in Phil. Trans. XXXI. 228 The Ligament that ties the Fociles together. |
| attrib. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. K iv b, Of what shape are y⊇ two focyl bones? 1548–77 Vicary Anat. vii. (1888) 49 Of the two Focel bones..the lesse goeth from the Elbowe to the Thombe. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Focil-bone. |