Pl. anco·nes. [L., a. Gr. ἀγκών a nook or bend, spec. the elbow.]
1. Phys. The elbow. (See quot.)
1706. Phillips, Ancon … the Elbow … sometimes taken by Anatomists for the backward and larger shooting forth of the Bone of the Arm called Vlna.
1853. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Ancon, term for the elbow; or the triangular surface of the olecranon process of the ulna.
2. Arch. a. The corner or quoin of a wall, cross-beam, or rafter. b. One of ‘the trusses or consoles sometimes employed in the dressings or antepagmenta of apertures, serving as an apparent support to the cornice of them at the flanks.’ Gwilt.
1706. Phillips, s.v., In Architecture Ancones are the corners or coins of Walls … Cross-beams or Rafters.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Ancon … in the antient architecture, the brackets, or shouldering pieces, called consoles by the moderns.
1823. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 583. Consoles are called, according to their form, ancones or trusses, mutules, and modillions.
3. Ancon sheep: A race with long bodies, and very short legs, the fore-legs crooked; bred from a single lamb born with these peculiarities in 1791.
1819. Laurence, Phys. (1848), 312. Where common ewes have had twins by ancon rams.
1852. T. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., I. ix. 342. The sheep with very short legs, called ancon sheep in Connecticut.
