ulna

Etymology

It is first recorded as inherited from Middle English ulne, also ulna,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin ulna (“elbow, forearm; a measure of length”),^[2][4][3][5] which Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats in its modern use as New Latin.^[6] The Latin word is from Proto-Indo-European *el- (“elbow, forearm”),^[3][7] and is related to Ancient Greek ὠλένη (ōlénē, “elbow”) and Old English eln (“forearm; ell”), the source of ell.^[4][8][9] Further cognates are Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (aleina),^[8][10] Old High German elina and Old Irish uilenn (“angle”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The upper arm, or its bone, the humerus: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac, as ulne and ulna.^[2][12] The sense "bone of the forearm" is first recorded about 1541, in R. Copland's Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary of Cyrurgyens,^[4][6] and Etymonline likewise says the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The medical use before 1425 placed the ulna in the upper arm, where a translation calls it the part between the shoulder and the elbow.^[2] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English likewise say that it first denoted the humerus,^[12][13] and the sense then moved to the forearm by the 16th century.^[4][12] From 1831 the word was also applied to the matching bone of a quadruped's foreleg and a bird's wing,^[4] and by 1839 it was used in palaeontology and ichthyology.^[4] The adjective ulnar follows in the 18th century.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1425 – the upper arm, or the humerus (now obsolete).^[2][12]
• c. 1541 – the large inner bone of the forearm.^[4][6]
• 1831 – the corresponding bone of a quadruped's foreleg or a bird's wing.^[4]
• 1839 – in palaeontology and ichthyology, a bone of fishes and fossil forms.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The inner and longer of the two bones of the human forearm, running from the elbow to the wrist.^[5][6][4]
2. The corresponding bone in other vertebrates, as in a quadruped's foreleg or a bird's wing.^[5][6][4]
3. (ichthyology) The hypercoracoid bone of a fish.^[6][4]
4. (obsolete) The upper arm or its bone, the humerus.^[2][12]

Word family

• ulnar

Related words

• ell
• elbow

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press