Elbow

How to spell elbow

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce elbow

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elbow mean?

1. nounThe joint between the upper and lower arm where the arm bends.
2. verbTo push or shove someone using the arm joint, often to make one's way.

Elbow in a sentence

• noun

  She rested her elbow on the table while she read.

• verb

  Commuters elbow each other to reach the closing train doors.

• noun

  He bruised his elbow when he slipped on the icy step.

• verb

  She had to elbow her way through the crowded market.

Where does elbow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Elbow comes straight from Old English, where it appeared as elnboga, a compound joining eln, meaning the forearm or the length from elbow to fingertip, with boga, meaning a bend or arch (the same boga that gives us the bow you shoot arrows with). The literal sense was therefore 'the bend of the forearm', a wonderfully plain description of the joint. Related forms turn up across the Germanic languages, such as the German Ellenbogen, showing the compound is genuinely ancient rather than borrowed. Over the centuries the two parts fused and the spelling settled with a silent-feeling middle, which is why the 'lb' cluster can trip writers who expect the word to be spelled the way it sounds. The verb sense, meaning to shove or jostle with the joint, grew naturally out of the noun and was well established by the sixteenth century.

How the word is built

• el- (from Old English eln: forearm, the length of a forearm)
• -bow (from boga: a bend or arch)