Other forms: shanks
A shank is the lower part of the leg, or the straight part of a tool. Lamb shank, the shank of a drill bit, a long shank.
In butchery a shank is the lower leg, full of connective tissue, which is why it needs long slow cooking and rewards it — lamb shank is the standard example. In tools, the shank is the plain part held in the chuck or handle. In golf, to shank a shot is to hit it off the hosel, which sends it sideways. Note shanks's pony, meaning on foot.
1nounshankThe lower part of the leg.
“The lamb shank was so tender that the meat fell off the bone.”
2nounstraightThe straight plain part of a tool.
“Grip the drill bit by its shank and push it firmly into the drill.”
shank is a lower leg or straight part.
Old English sceanca meant the leg, and it was pushed aside by the Norse-derived leg. It survives as shank in butchery, in tools and in shanks's pony.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)keng- — to hobble, limp; to tilt
Proto-Germanic
*skankô — shank; thigh
Proto-West Germanic
*skankō
Old English
sċanca
Middle English
sceonke
English, today
shank
Built from
Middle English sceonke, schank, schanke, shanke, schonke, sconke, sschanke, from Old English sċanca, sċeanca, sċeonca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic skankō, from Proto-Germanic skankô (“shank; thigh”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)keng- (“to hobble, limp; to tilt”). 2 Cognate with West Frisian skonk (“leg”), Dutch schenkel (“shank”), German and lb Schenkel (“thigh”), Danish skank (“shank; leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk skank, skonk (“thigh; foot”), Swedish skank, skånk (“leg”); also kw kamm (“pace, step”), Irish céim (“pace, step”), gv keim (“degree, pace, stage, step”), Scottish Gaelic ceum (“pace, step”), Welsh cam (“pace, step”), Greek σκάω, σκάζω (“to burst, explode”), Bulgarian and mk шега́ (“jest, joke; prank”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire