ankle
verbEtymology
From Middle English ankel, ancle, ankyll, from Old English ancol (compare anclēow (“ankle”) > Modern English anclef, ancliff, ancley), from Proto-West Germanic *ankul, from Proto-Germanic *ankulaz (“ankle”); akin to Icelandic ökkla, ökli, Danish and Swedish ankel, Dutch enkel, enklaauw, German Enkel, Old Norse akka, Old Frisian anckel, and perhaps Old High German encha, ancha (“thigh, shin”), from the Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“ankle, joint”). Compare with Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “limb”), अङ्गुरि (aṅguri, “finger”), Latin angulus. Compare haunch and Greek prefix ἀγκυλο- (ankulo-, “joint, crooked, bent”). Doublet of angulus and angle.
1
Ambitransitive, Slang To walk.
- Arvay’s tearful speech followed the usual pattern, and everybody said it was just fine. There had been nothing about the heathens of China, India and Africa wallowing around on the heavenly chairs, nor ankling up and down the golden streets.1948, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 1, in Seraph on the Suwanee, New York: HarperPerennial, published 1991, page 5:
- 1951, Anthony Buckeridge, Jennings’ Little Hut, London: Collins, 1973, Chapter 15, p. 178, Supposing we all ankled over to the huts […]
2 more examples
- 1966, P. G. Wodehouse, Plum Pie, London: Everyman, 2007, Chapter 6, p. 158, He ankled round, accordingly, to her house and his ring at the bell was answered by Wilberforce, her butler […]
- After a while he got up and ankled his way down the corridor and met Penny coming out of the toilet.2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 275: