Wiktionary

phalanx

See also: Phalanx

English

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WOTD – 4 December 2015
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Bones of the hand: carpals, metacarpals and phalanges

Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “battle order, array”). Doublet of phalange, planch, plancha, planche, and plank.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈfeɪˌlæŋks/, /ˈfæˌlæŋks/
  • Hyphenation: pha‧lanx
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

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phalanx (plural phalanxes or phalanges)

  1. (historical, plural phalanxes) An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
  2. (historical sociology) A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.
    • 2009 April 16, Jon Mooallem, “The End Is Near! (Yay!)”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      [Charles Fourier] calculated that if precisely 1,620 men, women and children were collected in a 6,000-acre phalanx, they would — all by merrily following their individual passions — end up satisfying all the phalanx’s essential needs.
  3. (plural phalanxes or (rare) phalanges) A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
    • 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, The Chair of the Indian KIng, page 93:
      The monarch hath gone, but his rocky throne
      Still rests on its frowning base;
      Its motionless guards rise in phalanx lone,
      And nought save the winds through their helmets that moan,
      And none but those bosoms and hearts of stone
      Sigh o'er a fallen race.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      But there was no man to greet them in the market-place, and no woman's face appeared at the windows - only a bodiless voice went before them, calling: "Fallen is Imperial Kôr! - fallen! - fallen! fallen!" On, right through the city, marched those gleaming phalanxes, and the rattle of their bony tread echoed through the silent air as they pressed grimly on.
    • 1895, Ida M[inerva] Tarbell, “The Second Funeral of Napoleon.—Removal of Napoleon’s Remains from St. Helena to the Banks of the Seine in 1840.”, in A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, New York, N.Y.: S[amuel] S[idney] McClure, Limited […], page 240, column 1:
      From Courbevoie to the Hôtel des Invalides, one walked through a hedge of elaborate decorations—of bees, eagles, crowns, N’s; of bucklers, banners, and wreaths bearing the names of famous victories; of urns blazing with incense; of rostral columns; masts bearing trophies of arms and clusters of flags; flaming tripods; allegorical statues; triumphal arches; great banks of seats draped in imperial purple and packed with spectators, and phalanges of soldiers.
    • 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 331:
      Broad phalanx of cars across the bridge moving slowly through the streaming snow.
    • 2007 April 25, Hélène Mulholland, “Blair refuses to condemn FoI bill”, in The Guardian‎[2], London, archived from the original on 3 October 2014:
      The Guardian today listed a phalanx of ministers who back the bill, including Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, Tony McNulty, the policing minister, Andy Burnham, the junior health minister, Ian Pearson, the climate change minister, John Healey, the financial secretary to the Treasury, and Keith Hill, parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair.
    • 2007 May 6, Sean O'Hagan, “The day I thought would never come: This week, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness will astonish those who experienced the Troubles”, in The Guardian‎[3], London, archived from the original on 3 October 2014:
      There, the Paisleyites were being held back by another phalanx of soldiers and policemen.
    • 2009, Maria Nugent, “[In between] The second day”, in Captain Cook Was Here, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 58:
      For a short time the two phalanges of men faced each other at a distance apart.
    • 2022, Sugata Nandi, “Insurrectionary city: Revolts in colonial Calcutta, 1918–1946”, in Urvi Mukhopadhyay, Suchandra Ghosh, editors, Exploring South Asian Urbanity, Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, part V (Urban fringes and insurrections), chapter section “The mass and Gandhi Raj, 1918–1922”:
      The next day, phalanges of soldiers blocked all entrances to the city as rumours that Muslim workers from all around Calcutta would throng the venue of the meeting in protest reached the commissioner of the city Police.
  4. (anatomy, plural phalanges) One of the bones of the finger or toe.

Synonyms

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  • (anatomy, bone of the finger or toe): phalange

Derived terms

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Translations

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Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx). Compare Latin phalanga.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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phalanx f (genitive phalangis); third declension

  1. phalanx, battalion

Declension

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Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative phalanx phalangēs
genitive phalangis phalangum
dative phalangī phalangibus
accusative phalangem phalangēs
ablative phalange phalangibus
vocative phalanx phalangēs
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Descendants

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References

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  • “phalanx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “phalanx”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • phalanx in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[4], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to form a phalanx: phalangem facere (B. G. 1. 24)
    • to break through the phalanx: phalangem perfringere
  • “phalanx”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “phalanx”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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