Emily in San Diego, California, reports her father’s side of the family has a word for the back of the knee: nicket. German speakers refer to that part of the body as the Kniekehle, from German words meaning “knee” and “groove” or “throat.” English also has a word for the inner part of the elbow, the chelidon, from a Greek word for “swallow,” a reference to the shape of that bird’s tail. This anatomical feature is also called the crook of the arm or the inner elbow. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Nicket, the Back of the Knee”
Hi, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, thank you.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Emily. I’m calling from San Diego, California.
How you doing? What can we do for you?
Well, I’m calling because I grew up with this pretty silly word, which is nicket, meaning the opposite side of a joint.
Like the soft part inside your elbow, like if your elbow’s the point, the inside is the elbow nicket.
It’s one of those words that my family always used and no one else had ever heard of.
And I wondered if it was an actual term that anyone has used or if it’s just a weird family, strange thing that somebody made up once.
So, Nickit, if I were to look that up in the dictionary, how would I spell it?
Well, that’s a good question.
Sometimes we spell it with an N, but sometimes it’s K-N.
So, I’m not really sure.
I’ve never seen it written.
So in my mind, it’s K-N-I-C-K-E-T.
But I think sometimes other family members would spell it just with the N with no K in front.
I don’t know that one, Martha.
I know a bunch of terms for the inside of a joint, but not that one.
Well, I have a question for you, Emily.
Is there any German heritage in your family?
Aha.
Not that I’m aware of.
This side of the family that uses this term is Ukrainian.
So I don’t know if there’s like, maybe when they immigrated over here, they were in the same town with some Germans, but there’s no German heritage that I know of.
Okay. The reason that I ask is that one of my favorite terms for the back of your knee is the German term Kniekehle.
That starts with a K and Kniekehle.
And it means literally knee throat, which I think is so picturesque because it kind of looks like a throat there behind your knee.
So Knee Kayla sort of sounds like Nickit, but who knows?
It literally means knee throat.
Is that what you said?
Yeah.
The Kayla can mean throat or pit, which I think is really cool.
Yeah.
That’s exactly what it is.
It’s your knee pit is your knee nicket.
Yeah.
Or your elbow pit is your elbow nicket.
Your armpit is your shoulder nicket, I guess.
Yeah, your shoulder nicket.
Although it already has its own words.
That’s great.
I like that.
It’s possible it’s related to that.
That’s a good guess, Martha.
Well, thanks.
Well, thanks for that.
I’m going to pass that on to the family.
For the elbow, the opposite side of the elbow, I know a bunch.
Some people call it the obvious things like the crook of the elbow or the crook of the arm, inner elbow, crease of the elbow or elbow crease.
But there are medical terms for that one.
The cubital fossa or the antecubital fossa, meaning in front of the fossa. Fossa being a word for pit, you know, or depression.
Ditch, yeah.
And then there’s another word.
The shape of the inner arm kind of looks like the tail of a swallow. There’s like a forked, if you look at it, there’s kind of a forked pattern to it.
And so they call it the chelidon c-h-e-l-i-d-o-n and that is the genus name for swallows and it’s the Greek word for swallows.
Yeah, so your elbow pit, as you might call it, could be called the chelidon.
I like the the term shoulder nicket for armpit. I mean, there’s theres axilla from Latin meaning armpit.
whats What’s the oxter term, Martha?
Oh yeah, oxter. Yeah, somebody might be carried out of a bar, if they get combative.
They might be carried out by their oxters, which is their armpits.
I heard that word in my favorite book series. That’s where I learned the word oxtern.
What’s your favorite book series?
Is that the Diana Galbadan books?
It sure is.
Outlander. Good call.
I read the first six of those, so that’s why I thought it probably was.
Emily, I think we’ve thrown a ton of terms at you, so take your pick.
I love nick it because it also sounds ancient. Even if it’s just a family word, it sounds like it could have been in the language for 900 years.
It does. I agree. I agree.
Or maybe it’s like a little nick out of the back of your leg. I don’t know.
But, you know, Emily, the super cool thing about this show is that if somebody else calls it a nick it, we will hear about it.
Well, I’ll take this to the family Zoom and tell everyone what you guys had to say about it.
The family soon.
All right. Take care, Emily, and be well.
Thanks so much.
Thanks, you guys, too.
Okay.
What do you call the back of your knee or the inside of your elbow? Do you call it a nicket or something else?
Let us know.
Or send any question about language to words@waywordradio.org.
