different between phalanx vs phalangite

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek ?????? (phálanx, “battle order, array”). Doublet of plank.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fe?.?læ?ks/, /?fæ.?læ?ks/
• Hyphenation: pha?lanx

Noun

phalanx (plural phalanxes or phalanges)

1. (historical, plural phalanxes) An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
2. (historical sociology) A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.
3. (plural phalanxes) A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
4. (anatomy, plural phalanges) One of the bones of the finger or toe.

Synonyms

• (anatomy, bone of the finger or toe): phalange

Hyponyms

• (bone of the finger): distal phalanx, intermediate phalanx, proximal phalanx

Translations

Latin

Alternative forms

• falanx (later form)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ?????? (phálanx). Compare Latin phalanga.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?p?a.lanks/, [?p?ä??ä?ks?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?fa.lanks/, [?f??l??ks]

Noun

phalanx f (genitive phalangis); third declension

1. phalanx, battalion

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• phalanga

Descendants

References

• phalanx in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• phalanx in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• phalanx in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[4], London: Macmillan and Co.
• phalanx in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• phalanx in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Ancient Greek ?????????? (phalangít?s).

Noun

phalangite (plural phalangites)

1. (obsolete) A soldier belonging to a phalanx.
2. (historical) Specifically, a pikeman fighting in a Macedonian phalanx, armed with a two-handed pike and using a smaller shield than the hoplite's aspis.