canthus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin canthus (“corner of the eye”), from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkænθəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

canthus (plural canthi or canthuses)

1. (anatomy) Either corner of the eye, where the eyelids meet.
   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:

     the lowly East with its deer head (dark trace of long tear at inner canthus

   • 2004, Andrew Sean Greer, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 263:

     I could sit here while the milk makes white shadows in its glass, while darkness mutters behind the window, and wait for a tear to show itself in the creased canthus of your eye.

   • 2015 August 26, “Effects of Relaxing Music on Mental Fatigue Induced by a Continuous Performance Task: Behavioral and ERPs Evidence”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     A ground electrode located between Fpz and Fz. The electro-oculogram (EOG) was recorded bipolarly from two electrodes placed at the outer canthi of the right eye and below the left eye.

Derived terms

• canth-
• canthal
• canthitis
• cantho-
• lateral canthus
• medial canthus
• telecanthus

Related terms

- canthoplasty

• endocanthion
• epicanthus
• exocanthion (ectocanthion)

Translations

corner of the eye, where the eyelids meet

• Arabic: مَأْق m (maʔq), مَأْقًى m (maʔqan), لِحَاظ (liḥāẓ)
• Bulgarian: кантус m (kantus)
• Catalan: cua de l'ull f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眼角 (zh) (yǎnjiǎo), 眥 / 眦 (zh) (zì)

• Choctaw: nishkin chukbika
• Czech: oční koutek m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: silmäkulma (fi)
• French: canthus (fr) m, coin de la paupière m, coin de l'œil m
• Galician: rabiño do ollo m
• German: Lidwinkel m, Augenwinkel (de) m
• Greek: κανθός (el) m (kanthós)

  Ancient Greek: κανθός m (kanthós)

• Hawaiian: luaʻuhane (only refers to medial canthus)
• Hungarian: szemzug (hu)
• Italian: coda dell'occhio f (literally “eye's tail”)
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Māori: pī, pī o te karu
• Persian: چشم‌گوشه
• Portuguese: canto (pt) m
• Romanian: cantus n
• Swedish: ögonvrå (sv) c

Anagrams

• chaunts, staunch

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.tʰʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.tus]

Etymology 1

Alternative spelling of cantus. The term for “rim of a wheel” is ultimately of Gaulish origin, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”). Related to Breton kant (“circle”), Middle Irish cétad (“round seat”), Welsh cant (“rim, edge”), English Kent.

The frequent spelling with -th- is due to the influence of unrelated (or possible Indo-European cognate) Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”) (see Etymology 2), which after its borrowing became conflated with the Gaulish term for "rim" in Latin.

Noun

canthus m (genitive canthī); second declension

1. the iron ring around a carriage wheel; the tire
2. a wheel

   Synonym: rota

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	canthus	canthī
genitive	canthī	canthōrum
dative	canthō	canthīs
accusative	canthum	canthōs
ablative	canthō	canthīs
vocative	canthe	canthī

Descendants

• Asturian: cantu
• Catalan: cantó
• French: chant; → canthus
• Italian: canto
• Old Galician-Portuguese: canto
  • Fala: canto
  • Galician: canto
  • Portuguese: canto
• Sicilian: cantu
• Spanish: canto

Borrowings

• →? Albanian: kënd
• → Middle Dutch: kant
  • Dutch: kant
  • → Middle Low German: kant
    • → Polish: kant
    • → German: Kante
• → English: canthus
• → Romanian: cantus

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”), which became conflated with the above.

Noun

canthus m (genitive canthī); second declension

1. (anatomy) corner of the eye

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	canthus	canthī
genitive	canthī	canthōrum
dative	canthō	canthīs
accusative	canthum	canthōs
ablative	canthō	canthīs
vocative	canthe	canthī