scolex

Note: P. Chantraine (Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque) follows others in associating Greek skṓlēx with a presumed word skṓlos used by the glossator Hesychius in the dative plural: skṓloisi ‧ drepánois, dià tḕn skoliótēta ("skṓloisi : scythes, from its curved form"), but the semantic link is tenuous and the presumed lengthened-grade vowel is difficult to account for. The word skṓloisi would then be further connected with skōlýptesthai "to wave to and fro" (attested once), skoliós "bent, crooked," and skélos "leg" (see isosceles).