Knuckle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The knuckles are the joints of the fingers, which are brought into prominence when the hand is shut. The word is derived from the diminutive of a word for bone, found in German Knochen. Medically, it is said that the knuckles are formed by the metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints of the finger. Knuckle-dusters or brass knuckles are said to have originally come from the criminal slang of the United States, and are brass or metal instrument fitting on to the hand across the knuckles, used to inflict a more brutal impact during a punch.

[edit]  :FACT:

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

This page has been transwikied to Wiktionary. Because this article has content useful to Wikipedia's sister project Wiktionary, it has been copied to there, and its dictionary counterpart can be found at either Wiktionary:Transwiki:Knuckle or Wiktionary:Knuckle. It should no longer appear in Category:Copy to Wiktionary and should not be re-added there. Wikipedia is not a dictionary, and if this article cannot be expanded beyond a dictionary definition, it should be tagged for deletion. If it can be expanded into an article, please do so and remove this template. Note that {{vocab-stub}} is deprecated. If {{vocab-stub}} was removed when this article was transwikied, and the article is deemed encyclopedic, there should be a more suitable category for it.