splenius

• splenius muscle

Borrowed from Latin splēnius, from splēnium (“a plaster, patch”) +‎ -ius (adjectival suffix).

• IPA^(key): /ˈspliː.ni.əs/
• Rhymes: -iːniəs

splenius (plural splenii)

1. (anatomy) Either of two flat oblique muscles which are attached to the vertebrae on each side of the neck and upper thoracic region and which draw back the head.
   • 1969, Владимир Набоков, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, page 89:

     He caressed and parted [...] her lank loose, nearly lumbus-length (when she threw her head back as now) black silks as he tried to get at her bed-warm splenius.

• “splenius”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “splenius”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• spinules

From splēnium (“a plaster, patch”) +‎ -ius (adjectival suffix), from Ancient Greek σπληνίον (splēníon, “pad or compress of linen laid on a wound”).

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsplɛː.ni.us]

splēnius (feminine splēnia, neuter splēnium); first/second-declension adjective

1. (New Latin) Shaped like a plaster or patch.

   musculus splēnius ― the muscle

First/second-declension adjective.

→ English: splenius