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Glite Dictionary
calf bone

calf bone

4.6
The outer, thinner bone in the lower leg between the knee and ankle, also called the fibula
  • noun
  • /kæf boʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : peroné
  • A train driver who fractured his calf bone when he tripped and fell at St Pancras station has secured £20,000 in compensation.

Examples

  • After the accident, the doctor confirmed that he had broken his calf bone in the fall.

  • During the physical examination, the clinic noted that her calf bone was healing well after the injury.

  • The athlete had to undergo surgery to repair his fractured calf bone before returning to the field.

Synonyms

fibula
vscalf bone
  • Specialized
9 7.4

A thin long bone on the outside of the lower leg between knee and ankle

is the same bone but used as the everyday nontechnical name

Surface Forms

calf bone singular
calf bones plural

Morphology

calf + bone

The meaning 'the bone of the calf' is directly and compositionally derived from 'calf' (lower leg muscle/area) + 'bone' (skeletal tissue), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a bone located in the calf. This body-part + bone construction is cross-linguistically common; a learner might not know the anatomical term 'fibula', but the referent is transparently recoverable from the constituents.

Etymology

The noun calf bone may come from the word calf, meaning the soft back part of the lower leg, because this bone sits under that calf muscle. That's why calf bone now means the thin outer bone in the 'lower leg'.