Citations:acnestis

English citations of acnestis

1. The part of an animal's skin that it cannot reach to scratch itself, usually the space between the shoulder blades.
   • 2009, Adam Jacot de Boinod, The Wonder of Whiffling: And other Extraordinary Words in the English Language, London: Particular Books, →ISBN:

     acnestis (1807) that part of an animal (between its shoulders and lower back) that it cannot reach to scratch

   • 2011, Roy Blount, Jr., Alphabetter Juice: or, The Joy of Text, New York, N.Y.: Sarah Crichton Books; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, pages 15–16:

     acnestis […] It is the spot, back between your shoulder blades, that you can't reach, yourself, to scratch. […] it's a venerable term – OED traces it back to 1743 – and not without currency, perhaps because it appears in Ammon Shea's 2008 book about reading the entire OED in one year.

   • 2011, Laura Harrington, Alice Bliss, New York, N.Y.: Pamela Dorman Books, Viking Press, →ISBN:

     "What's your new favorite word?" Gram asks. / "I have two: Acnestis. Noun. On an animal, the point of the back that lies between the shoulders and the lower back, which cannot be reached to be scratched. […] "

   • 2012, Philip Howard, The Lost Words: A Feast of Forgotten Words, their Origins and their Meanings, London: The Robson Press, →ISBN:

     ACNESTIS That part of the back between the shoulder blade and the bum (loins) that an animal cannot reach in order to scratch. Adapted from the Greek for the spine or backbone. […] [I]t explains why your dog rolls on the ground in apparent ecstasy.