a. and sb. Comp. Anat. a. adj. (a) Of or pertaining to the tarsus and the metatarsus, as ‘the tarso-metatarsal ligaments’; (b) Of or pertaining to a tarso-metatarsus. b. sb. Short for tarso-metatarsal bone or ligament.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 288/1. In the Grallatores … the tarso-metatarsal bone is remarkably elongated.
1851. Mantell, Petrifact., ii. § 1. 79. There are also tarsometatarsals of a remarkable extinct genus named Aptornis. Ibid., § 3. 116. The longest tarso-metatarsal bones I have seen are eighteen inches and a half in length.
1872. Humphry, Myology, 28. Near the insertion of the middle portions of the tarso-metatarsals.
1875. Sir W. Turner, in Encycl. Brit., I. 841/2. The configuration of its tarso-metatarsal joint and the attachment of the transverse metatarsal ligament prevent the great toe from being thrown across the surface of the sole as the thumb is thrown across the palm.
