tendon
(ˈtɛndən)
Also β. 6 tenaunt, tennon, 7 tenon, tendant, 8 tendent. pl. 6–7 (perh. Lat.) tendones.
[ad. med.L. tendo, tendōn-em and tendin-em, app. ad. Gr. τένων, τενοντ- sinew, tendon, influenced by L. tend-ĕre to stretch; so F. tendon (16th c.), also It. tendone, tendine, Sp. tendon.
To Celsus, a.d. 50, τένων was still a Greek word. In Cælius Aurelianus, c 400–420, it retains Gr. inflexions, e.g. acc. pl. tenontas; but in Theod. Priscianus has L. abl. pl. tenontibus. In med.L. it became tendon or tendo: the latter in Theod. Gaza, tr. Aristotle's Hist. Anim., 1476. The pl. occurs as tendones in the tr. of Galen by Nicolaus Calaber of Reggio a 1350, and there is later evidence that the o was long, tendōnes. Another pl. tendines (after ordines, etc.) was used in 16th c. and later. (I. Bywater.) The β-forms tenon, tenaunt perh. preserve traces of the Gr. forms, confused with other words.]
a. A band or cord of dense fibrous tissue forming the termination of a muscle, by which it is attached to a bone or other part; a sinew: usually applied to such when rounded or cord-like, broad flat tendons being called fasciæ and aponeuroses.
tendon of Achilles (L. tendo Achillis), the tendon of the heel; the tendon by which the muscles of the calf of the leg are attached to the heel, being the principal extensor of the foot. So named from the mythological account that when the infant Achilles was dipped by his mother Thetis in the Styx, to render him invulnerable, he was held by the heel, which thereby escaped dipping and remained vulnerable.
| 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. 1 b/1 Chordes or tendones. 1563 T. Gale Enchirid. 41 b (Stanf.) Nerues, tendons, ligamentes. 1578 Banister Hist. Man iii. 44 b, A tendon is the white part in the Muscle beyng hard, thicke, and shynnyng. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xiv. xxiv. (1620) 498 Small sinews and Tendones. 1726 Gay in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 59 The surgeon..told him, that his fingers were safe, that there were two nerves cut, but no tendon. 1872 Mivart Anat. 149 The radius,..its posterior surface is grooved for the passage of tendons. |
| β 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. F iv, The tenauntes moeuyng the heade and the necke, whiche are .xx. in nombre. Ibid., The tenaunt muscles and the strynges..that maketh the heade bowe. 1598 Florio, Tendini, as Tendoni, the tennons. 1607 Markham Caval. vii. (1617) 7 There is one maine tendant or sinewe. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Praise Cleane Linnen Ded., Wks. ii. 166 The Legge..ennamel'd with Sinewes, interwoven with Membranes, intermixt with Tenons, embost with Ankles. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4484/1 Convulsive Motions of the Tendents. |
b. Entom. (See
quot.)
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 381 Tendo (the Tendon), a strong bristle, or bristles observable at the base underneath in the under-wings of many Lepidoptera, which plays in the Hamus of the upper-wings. |
c. Engin. A steel rod or wire that is stretched while in liquid concrete so as to prestress it as it sets.
| 1958 F. S. Merritt Building Construction Handbk. v. 56 After the concrete has attained sufficient strength, the steel is secured to the anchor plates and the jacks are removed. The tendons will tend to shorten and therefore will put compression in the concrete. 1974 [see prestressing vbl. n.]. 1975 [see pre-tensioning vbl. n.]. 1981 Sci. Amer. June 45/3 The prestressed-concrete reactor vessel..is kept in compression at all times by a network of redundant, tensioned steel tendons that can be monitored and retensioned or even replaced if necessary. |
d. attrib. and
Comb., as
tendon cell,
tendon corpuscle (see
quot.),
tendon jerk (
jerk n.1 2 b),
tendon muscle,
tendon reaction,
tendon reflex (
reflex n. 6),
tendon sheath,
tendon thread;
tendon organ,
spindle = spindle n. 4 e.
| 1890 Billings Nat. Med. Dict., *T[endon] cells or corpuscles, connective tissue cells found in tendons and ligaments, arranged in rows following the course of the fibres. |
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 62 The increased activity of the *tendon-jerks is manifested by an excessive jaw-jerk. |
| 1541 *Tenaunt muscles [see β. above]. |
| 1923 V. H. Mottram Man. Histol. vii. 225 Similar apparatus is seen in the Golgi *tendon organ. 1974 D. & M. Webster Compar. Vertebr. Morphol. x. 202 Both the tendon organ and the muscle spindle fire in response to stretch. |
| 1878 Med. Times 2 Feb. 107 [Erb] applied to it the name ‘*tendon-reflex’. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 519 The knee-jerk is sometimes spoken of as a ‘tendon reflex’. |
| 1897 Ibid. III. 67 Effusion into the *tendon sheaths. |
| 1896 *Tendon-spindle [see spindle n. 4 e]. 1930 Maximow & Bloom Text-bk. Histol. xiv. 276 Not infrequently, of two branches of the same sensory fiber one supplies a muscle spindle, the other a tendon spindle. 1977 D. P. Winstanley tr. Leonhardt's Human Histol. 249 Tendon spindles are situated in the tendon close to its junction with the muscle. |
| 1906 Sir F. Treves in Daily Chron. 3 Aug. 3/4 Skins sewn together with a bone needle and a *tendon thread. |