different between neck vs nuchal

English

Etymology

From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian kna??is (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

neck (plural necks)

1. (anatomy) The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.

2. The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
3. The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
4. The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
5. (botany) The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
6. (music) The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
7. A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
8. (engineering) A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.

   a neck forming the journal of a shaft

9. The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
10. (architecture) The gorgerin of a capital.
11. (firearms) The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
12. (figuratively) A person's life.

    to risk one's neck; to save someone's neck

13. (informal, MLE, slang) A falsehood; a lie.
14. (folklore) shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore

    Synonyms: Neck, nicor, nokk, nix, nixie, nixy, nokken, näck, Näcken

Synonyms

• cervix, collum

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• throat

Verb

neck (third-person singular simple present necks, present participle necking, simple past and past participle necked)

1. To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate

2. (chiefly US) To make love; to intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.

   Synonyms: French kiss, grope, pet, smoodge, snog, snuggle, smooch

3. To drink rapidly.

   Synonym: chug

   • 2006, Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, London

     In the dim light, punters sit sipping raspberry-flavoured Tokyo martinis, losing the freestyle sushi off their chopsticks or necking Asahi beer.
4. To decrease in diameter.
   • 2007, John H. Bickford, Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints, page 272

     Since this temperature would place the bolt in its creep range, it will slowly stretch, necking down as it does so. Eventually it will get too thin to support the weight, and the bolt will break.

Derived terms

• necking

Translations

Anagrams

• Enck

English

Etymology

From nucha, from Medieval Latin, from Arabic ??????? (nu???, “spinal cord”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?nu.k?l/, /?nju.k?l/

Noun

nuchal (plural nuchals)

1. The back of the neck.
2. (medicine, colloquial) Short for nuchal translucency scan.
3. (zoology) A neck scale, especially of a lizard.
   • 1935, The Kansas University Science Bulletin, Volume 23, page 105,

     Dunn gives a key to a part of this group of Eumeces, based upon the number of nuchals, placing the two American species (he does not consider Eumeces altamirani Dugès) in a group having 14-17 pairs of nuchals; […] .

   • 2004, B.G. Kapoor, Bhavna Khanna, Ichthyology Handbook, page 248,

     Growth patterns of clavicles, cleithra, opercles, medial nuchals, dorsal scutes, and pectoral fin ray sections have been compared in white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus.

   • 2004, Hans-Georg Horn, 6.19: Varanus salvadorii, Eric R. Pianka, Dennis R. King, Ruth Allen King (editors), Varanoid Lizards of the World, Indiana University Press, page 236,

     Scales are weakly differentiated, with head scales flat and smooth, nuchals small and smooth, dorsal scales small and keeled, and tail scales larger ventrally than laterally, without wings.

Synonyms

• (back of the neck): nape, nucha

Adjective

nuchal (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the back or nape of the neck.
   • 2004, Vikram Dogra, Deborah J. Rubens, Ultrasound Secrets, Hanley & Belfus, page 58,

     What is the differential diagnosis of increased nuchal thickness? Although most fetuses with increased nuchal thickness are normal, the differential diagnosis of increased nuchal thickness includes an increased risk of fetal aneuploidy, particularly trisomy 21.

   • 2006, A. Antsaklis, Ultrasonographic soft markers for chromosomal abnormalities, Asim Kurjak, Frank A. Chervenak (editors), Textbook of Perinatal Medicine, 2nd Edition, Informa Healthcare, page 1192,

     Nuchal thickness was the first sonographic marker associated with an increased risk of trisomy 21 in the fetus and is now accepted as the single most sensitive and specific marker for the detection of DS in the second trimester, in high- and low-risk pregnancies.

   • 2006, David W. Frayer, Jan Jelinek, Martin Oliva, Milford H. Wolpoff, Chapter 9: Aurignacian male crania, jaws and teeth from the Mlade? Caves, Moravia, Czech Republic, Maria Teschler-Nicola (editor), Early Modern Humans at the Moravian Gate: The Mladec Caves and their Remains, Springer, page 220,

     Many particulars of the nuchal torus region and nuchal plane are preserved (see Caspari, 1991 for further details, our description replies heavily on Caspari's work).

Derived terms

• nuchal cord
• nuchal scan
• retronuchal

Translations

Anagrams

• chulan, launch