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.

   • 2024 May 29, Nick Brodrick, “Between a rock and a wet place...”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 39:

     Above here is what is known as a talus slope - sandstone that has gradually disintegrated and tumbled down to create a menacing sloping pile of loose rock.

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 Latin) 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
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *talonis
  • Old French: talon
    • French: talon
    • Norman: talon (Jersey)
    • → Middle English: taloun
      • English: talon
  • Italian: tallone
• 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