the.com/shoulder blade
The bone that proves your back has wings, just never learned to fly.
means The flat, triangular bone on each side of your upper back — scapula to anatomists — that anchors your arm and lets your shoulder swing and rotate.
from Straightforward English compounding: 'shoulder' plus 'blade,' the same 'blade' as in a flat blade of grass or a sword blade — because the bone is broad and flattish, not because of any cutting edge. 'Blade' itself traces back to Old English 'blæd,' meaning leaf or flattened frond. The Latin-derived medical term 'scapula' has its own murkier past, possibly linked to a word for 'shovel' or 'spade' — another nod to the bone's flat, digging-tool shape.
- official name
- scapula, Latin for little trowel
- floats free
- attached by muscle, not bone, to ribs
- shape origin
- named for resembling an ancient digging tool
- mobility king
- enables huge arm range most joints envy