Also β. 6 tenaunt, tennon, 7 tenon, tendant, 8 tendent. Pl. 6–7 (perh. Lat.) tendones. [ad. med.L. tendo, tendōn-em and tendin-em, app. ad. Gr. τένων, τενοντ- sinew, tendon, influenced by L. tend-ĕre to stretch; so F. tendon (16th c.), also It. tendone, tendine, Sp. tendon.
To Celsus, A.D. 50, τένων was still a Greek word. In Cælius Aurelianus, c. 400–420, it retains Gr. inflexions, e.g., acc. pl. tenontas; but in Theod. Priscianus has L. abl. pl. tenontibus. In med.L. it became tendon or tendo: the latter in Theod. Gaza, trans. Aristotle’s Hist. Anim., 1476. The pl. occurs as tendones in the trans. of Galen by Nicolaus Calaber of Reggio a. 1350, and there is later evidence that the o was long, tendōnes. Another pl. tendines (after ordines, etc.) was used in 16th c. and later. (I. Bywater.) The β-forms tenon, tenaunt perh. preserve traces of the Gr. forms, confused with other words.]
A band or cord of dense fibrous tissue forming the termination of a muscle, by which it is attached to a bone or other part; a sinew: usually applied to such when rounded or cord-like, broad flat tendons being called fasciæ and aponeuroses.
Tendon of Achilles (L. tendo Achillis), the tendon of the heel; the tendon by which the muscles of the calf of the leg are attached to the heel, being the principal extensor of the foot. So named from the mythological account that when the infant Achilles was dipped by his mother Thetis in the Styx, to render him invulnerable, he was held by the heel, which thereby escaped dipping and remained vulnerable.
1543. Traheron, vigo’s Chirurg., 1 b/1. Chordes or tendones.
1563. T. Gale, Enchirid., 41 b (Stanf.). Nerues, tendons, ligamentes.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, III. 44 b. A tendon is the white part in the Muscle beyng hard, thicke, and shynnyng.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, XIV. xxiv. (1620), 498. Small sinews and Tendones.
1726. Gay in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 59. The surgeon … told him, that his fingers were safe, that there were two nerves cut, but no tendon.
1872. Mivart, Anat., 149. The radius,… its posterior surface is grooved for the passage of tendons.
β. 1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., F iv. The tenauntes moeuyng the heade and the necke, which are .xx. in nombre. Ibid. The tenaunt muscles and the strynges … that maketh the heade bowe.
1598. Florio, Tendini, as Tendoni, the tennons.
1607. Markham, Caval., VII. (1617), 7. There is one maine tendant or sinewe.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Cleane Linnen, Ded., Wks. II. 166. The Legge … ennamel’d with Sinewes, interwoven with Membranes, intermixt with Tenons, embost with Ankles.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4484/1. Convulsive Motions of the Tendents.
b. Entom. (See quot.)
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 381. Tendo (the Tendon), a strong bristle, or bristles observable at the base underneath in the under-wings of many Lepidoptera, which plays in the Hamus of the upper-wings.
c. attrib. and Comb., as tendon cell, corpuscle (see quot.), jerk (JERK sb.1 2 b), muscle, reaction, reflex (REFLEX sb. 6), sheath, thread.
1890. Billings, Nat. Med. Dict., *T[endon] cells or corpuscles, connective tissue cells found in tendons and ligaments, arranged in rows following the course of the fibres.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 62. The increased activity of the *tendon-jerks is manifested by an excessive jaw-jerk.
1541. *Tenaunt muscles [see β. above].
1878. Med. Times, 2 Feb., 107. [Erb] applied to it the name *‘tendon-reflex.’
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 519. The knee-jerk is sometimes spoken or as a ‘tendon reflex.’ Ibid. (1897), III. 67. Effusion into the *tendon sheaths.
1906. Sir F. Treves in Daily Chron., 3 Aug., 3/4. Skins sewn together with a bone needle and a *tendon thread.
