hamstring tendon
- noun
- /ˈhæmstrɪŋ ˈtɛndən/
- Specialized
- After injuring his knee, he worked hard to rehabilitate his hamstring tendon and regain full mobility.
Examples
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The physical therapist explained how the hamstring tendon connects the muscles to the bones behind the knee.
-
"Sims, it turned out, had called him in to perform a tenotomy, the desperate remedy of severing the child's hamstring tendons."
Academic text (1994) -
During the workout, she felt a sharp pain in her leg that indicated an issue with her hamstring tendon.
Synonyms
A strong band of tissue that connects a muscle to a bone
A group of muscles and tendons at the back of the thigh that bend the knee
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'hamstring' (the muscle group/tendon behind the thigh) with 'tendon' (inelastic tissue connecting muscle to bone): it denotes the tendon belonging to the hamstring. This is a regular noun–noun compound/possessive structure common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
Hamstring tendon comes from old English words: ham meant the 'back of the knee' and string meant a tight 'cord'. So the name described the tight cord at the back of the leg that connects muscle to bone, and today it means the tendon behind the knee.