† forceln.

Etymology: Probably < Middle French forcelle one of the bones in the chest or upper leg of a horse (1563 in a translation of Vegetius Mulomedicina; c1100 in Old French as furcele in sense ‘collarbone’, 12th cent. as forcele in sense ‘upper part of the sternum’) < post-classical Latin forcella collarbone (9th cent.), alteration (with suffix substitution: see -ella suffix) of classical Latin furcilla small fork, in post-classical Latin also collarbone (13th cent. in British sources) < furca fork n. + -illa -illa suffix. Compare focile n. Compare also furcula n.In the version of the list of the horses's bones in quot. 1610, the bones of the upper hind leg called forcel in quot. 1607 are named focile; in this source forcel is used only for a bone of the chest or foreleg also called the cannel-bone. This appears to preserve a distinction between forcelle and focile occurring in a 16th-cent. French translation of the Mulomedicina of Vegetius, which seems to be the ultimate source of the list. Compare also the following apparently isolated earlier borrowing of either Anglo-Norman furcelle, Middle French fourcele, fourcelle groin, lower abdomen, pit of the stomach (14th cent. or earlier) or post-classical Latin forcella pit of the stomach, part of the abdomen in which the oesophagus joins the stomach, region about the base of the sternum (1363 in Chauliac; 12th cent. as furcella), reflecting a different semantic development of the French and Latin words:?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 14^v In þe forcelle [L. forcella] at þe mouþe of þe stomac is a cartilaginous additament called ensiforme.?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 15^v Þe orificiale party, which olde men called percordiale, is toward þe forcelle; þe stomocal partie is fro þens vnto 3 fyngers nyȝ þe vmbilic.