fibula

Borrowed from Latin fībula (“buckle, clasp, pin”). The bone is so named because the shape it makes with the tibia resembles a clasp, the fibula being the pin.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪb.jʊl.ə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪb.jəl.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɪbjʊlə

fibula (plural fibulae or (obsolete) fibulæ or fibulas)

1. An ancient kind of brooch used to hold clothing together, similar in function to the modern safety pin.
   • 1949, N. P. Toll, “Fibulae”, in Teresa G. Frisch, N. P. Toll, edited by M[ikhail] I[vanovich] Rostoftzeff, A. R. Bellinger, F. E. Brown, N. P. Toll, and C. B. Welles, The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Part IV. The Bronze Objects: Fascicle 1. Pierced Bronzes, Enameled Bronzes, and Fibulae, number Final Report IV, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, Bow Fibulae, page 56:

     Most of the fibulae have a triangular molding above the notch, which probably contained wound wire. The crossbar is decorated either with a flat knob or with a Persian merlon.

2. (anatomy) The smaller of the two bones in the lower leg.

   Synonym: calf bone

• fibular
• fibulate
• fibulo-, fibul-
• tibiofibula

• fibularis

• peroneal

• “fibula”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “fibula”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Latin fībula. Doublet of the inherited fibbia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfi.bu.la/
• Rhymes: -ibula
• Hyphenation: fì‧bu‧la

fibula f (plural fibule)

1. (anatomy) fibula, calf bone

   Synonym: perone

• fibula in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• bufali

Contraction of fīgibula, from fīgō (“to fix, fasten, thrust in”) +‎ -bula (instrumental nominal suffix).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfiː.bu.la/, [ˈfiːbʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.bu.la/, [ˈfiːbulä]

fībula f (genitive fībulae); first declension

1. (literal) clasp, buckle, brooch, pin, latchet, brace
2. (transferred sense) connection, bond, fetter
3. (surgery)
   1. surgical instrument for drawing together the lips of a wound
   2. stitching needle drawn through the prepuce

First-declension noun.

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1564: “la cintura; la fibbia” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*fibella”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 3: D–F, page 489

• “fibula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fibula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fibula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• fibula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “fibula”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fibula”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

• IPA^(key): [fiˈbula]

fibula f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of fibulă

Borrowed from Latin fibula.

• IPA^(key): /fîbula/
• Hyphenation: fi‧bu‧la

fȉbula f (Cyrillic spelling фи̏була)

1. (anatomy) fibula, calf bone