clxxxi

cushion

Definition: "A case of cloth, silk, etc. stuffed with some soft elastic material, used to give support or ease to the body in sitting, reclining, or kneeling."

quixotic

Definition: characteristic or appropriate to Don Quixote; enthusiastically chivalrous or romantic; naively idealistic; impractical; capricious

[This English definition and all the rest this month come from the Oxford English Dictionary; the Latin definition as always comes from the Oxford Latin Dictionary]

Sententia: There are no interesting sentences in Latin literature using "coxa" (other than a letter by Pliny describing how someone broke his hip). Thus, a bit of a song translated into Latin:

"...os tali coniunctum est cruris ossi,

os cruri coniunctum est genu ossi,

os genu coniunctum est femoris ossi,

os femoris coniunctum est coxae ossi,

os coxae coniunctum est tergi ossi..."

"...your ankle bone's connected to your leg [shin?] bone,

your leg bone's connected to your knee bone,

your knee bone's connected to your thigh bone,

your thigh bone's connected to your hip bone,

your hip bone's connected to your back bone..."

This song, though it seems anatomically inaccurate ("knee bone?"), does indeed use a lot of vocab for body parts in Latin. And I know that technically the present passive should be used here, but "coniunctum est" is one less syllable with the elision, and it sounds better than "coniungitur."

Today's Latin word is another body part, after last week's "costa," "rib." However, this word seems to hardly have been used at all in Latin literature, only with 10 examples in the Oxford Latin Dictionary. Its own etymology is somewhat curious, with the only citations as being similar to the Old Irish word for "foot" ("coss") and the Sanskrit word for "armpit" ("haksah"). The etymologies of "cushion" and "quixotic" are more clear, however. "Cushion" comes at first from French "coissin," "seat cushion," which in turn most likely comes from a proposed Vulgar Latin form "coxinum" coming from "coxa." "Quixotic" obviously comes from Don Quixote, the protagonist of Cervantes' book of the same name. However, Quixote's name in Spanish literally means "thigh/hip" (perhaps because of the thigh armor worn), and Modern Spanish's "quijote" is derived from "coxa."