truncal

1 9.4

Relating to the trunk of the body or main stem of a plant

adjective
/ˈtrʌŋkəl/

Specialized

: truncal

Children with truncal ataxia may experience difficulties with balance and coordination.

Examples

One small cross-sectional study suggested that adolescent males lose more fat from their extremities than from the truncal area.

Academic text (2014)
The prognosis for patients with head and neck sarcoma is significantly worse than that of patients whose tumors arise in the extremities or in truncal sites.

Academic text (2001)
Okay, well, no truncal ataxia, that's good.

Avatar (2009)
Conjunctivitis (marked) without discharge. A truncal rash often starting in the genital area.

Academic text (2012)
On physical examination, the patient exhibited poor eye tracking, shuffling gait, and truncal ataxia with intention tremor.

Academic text (2004)
Both the scoliometer and the forward bending test measure truncal rotation, and not scoliosis (Grossman et al., 1995).

Academic text (2002)
The doctor noted that the patient had truncal obesity, which can lead to various health issues.
In anatomy class, we studied the truncal anatomy to understand its relation to the cardiovascular system.

Surface Forms

truncal positive

Morphology

truncal = trunk (transparent) = trunk + al

This is a regular adjective formation meaning 'relating to the trunk', so the meaning follows directly from the base word.

Etymology

Truncal comes from the Latin word truncus, which means 'trunk', the main body or stem, like a tree trunk or your torso. So, truncal describes something that relates to the trunk or main part of the body or of a structure.