phalange
/ˈfalan(d)ʒ
/noun
1 Anatomy another term for phalanx (sense 2).See, the fracture occurred in the lower phalange of my left ring finger - a sliver of bone snapped off from the knuckle where the tendons connect....
- After the Sayee is over at Marwah you have to get a hair cut or a head shave; women have to have only their hair cut from at least three place the length of one phalange of her finger, approximately 1 or 1.5 inches.
- Radiographs of the fingertips of rock climbers, for example, show unusual bony spurs and thickened phalanges.
2 (Phalange) A right-wing Maronite party in Lebanon founded in 1936 by Pierre Gemayel.
Derivatives
Phalangist
- ‘In our view, the Minister of Defence made a grave mistake when he ignored the danger of acts of revenge by the Phalangists and bloodshed against the population in the refugee camps,’ the inquiry found.
- Syria then attacked the Christian Phalangist militia.
- I would compare them to the Phalangists, the fascist Maronite Christians in Lebanon, who fought tooth and nail 1975-1989 against recognizing that Christians were no longer a dominant majority in Lebanon.
Origin
Mid 19th century: back-formation from phalanges, plural of phalanx. sense 2 is a shortening of French Phalanges Libanaises 'Lebanese phalanxes'.