meniscus

English

WOTD – 20 July 2008

English Wikipedia has an article on:

meniscus

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μηνίσκος (mēnískos, “crescent”), from μήνη (mḗnē, “moon”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /məˈnɪs.kəs/, /mɛˈnɪs.kəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

meniscus (plural meniscuses or menisci)

1. A crescent moon, or an object shaped like it. [from 17th c.]
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 554:

     And from Crabbe's own forehead sweat dripped or gathered into a kind of meniscus to be scooped off.

   • 1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill, published 1972, page 19:

     He opened wide both casements; they gave on a parking place four floors below; the thin meniscus overhead was too wan to illumine the roofs of the houses descending toward the invisible lake [...].

2. (optics) A lens which is convex on one side and concave on the other, being crescent-shaped in cross-section. [from 17th c.]
3. The curved surface of liquids in tubes, whether concave or convex, caused by the surface tension of the liquid. [from 19th c.]
4. (anatomy) Either of two parts of the human knee that provide structural integrity to the knee when it undergoes tension and torsion. [from 19th c.]

Derived terms

• meniscal
• meniscectomy
• meniscoid
• meniscotomy
• meniscus midge

Translations

the curved surface of liquids

Bulgarian: мени́скус (bg) m (menískus) Catalan: menisc (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 彎月面 / 弯月面 (zh) (wānyuèmiàn) Finnish: meniski (fi), kaareva pinta French: ménisque (fr) m German: Meniskus (de) m Italian: menisco (it) m Latvian: menisks m Maori: mata kōpapa Polish: menisk m Portuguese: menisco m Russian: мени́ск (ru) m (menísk) Spanish: menisco (es) m Ukrainian: мені́ск m (menísk)

a crescent

Finnish: puolikuu (fi) French: ménisque (fr) m Russian: мени́ск (ru) m (menísk)

either of two parts of the human knee

Arabic: هِلَالَة f (hilāla) Belarusian: мені́ск m (mjenísk) Bulgarian: мени́скус (bg) m (menískus) Catalan: menisc (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 半月板 (zh) (bànyuèbǎn) Czech: meniskus m Finnish: nivelkierukka (fi) French: ménisque (fr) m German: Meniskus (de) m Italian: menisco (it) m Japanese: 半月板 (はんげつばん, hangetsuban) Korean: 반달연골 (bandaryeon'gol) Latvian: menisks m Polish: łękotka (pl) f Portuguese: menisco m Russian: мени́ск (ru) m (menísk) Spanish: menisco (es) m Swedish: menisk (sv) c Turkish: menisküs (tr) Ukrainian: мені́ск m (menísk)

See also

• lunette