ilium

See also: Ilium and -ilium

English

Alternative forms

• ilion (4th to 7th centuries)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īlium (“lower abdomen”), from īle (“flank”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪlɪəm/
• Rhymes: -ɪliəm

Noun

ilium (plural ilia)

1. (anatomy) The upper and widest of the three bones that make up each side of the hipbone and pelvis.
2. (anatomy, obsolete) The ileum, part of the small intestine (in modern usage, misspelling of ileum.).

Usage notes

In modern usage, the spelling ilium always refers to the bones of the hip and pelvis whereas the spelling ileum always refers to the last part of the small intestine. To remember the different spellings of these identically pronounced words, people have come up with the following mnemonics, for example:

• There is an -i- in the middle of both ilium and hip.
• The two letters i in ilium look like bones whereas the -e- in ileum is squiggly like an intestine.
• The intestinal obstruction called ileus affects the ileum, and both have an -e-.

Coordinate terms

• ischium
• pubis

Derived terms

• iliac
• ilio-

Translations

bone

• Catalan: ili (ca) m, os ilíac m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 髂骨 (zh) (qiàgǔ), 腸骨 / 肠骨 (zh) (chánggǔ)

• Dutch: darmbeen (nl) n
• Finnish: suoliluu (fi)
• Hungarian: csípőcsont (hu)
• Icelandic: mjaðmarspaði m
• Italian: osso iliaco m
• Japanese: 腸骨 (ja) (ちょうこつ, chōkotsu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: kemax (ku)

• Portuguese: ílio m, ilíaco (pt) m
• Russian: подвздошная кость f (podvzdošnaja kostʹ)
• Spanish: ilion (es) m
• Swedish: tarmben n
• Tagalog: buto ng balakang

French

Noun

ilium m (plural iliums)

1. ilium

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈiː.li.um/, [ˈiːlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈi.li.um/, [ˈiːlium]

Etymology 1

Back-formation from īlia, plural of īle.

Noun

īlium n (genitive īliī or īlī); second declension

1. Alternative form of īle.

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	īlium	īlia
genitive	īliī īlī1	īliōrum
dative	īliō	īliīs
accusative	īlium	īlia
ablative	īliō	īliīs
vocative	īlium	īlia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• → English: ilium

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

īlium n

1. genitive plural of īle

References

• “ilium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ilium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ilium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ilium”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “ilium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ilium”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly