The knuckles are the joints of the fingers and toes, which are brought into prominence when the hand is clenched and a fist is made. The word is derived from the diminutive of a word for bone, found in German Knochen/Knöchlein. Anatomically, it is said that the knuckles consist of the metacarpophalangeal[1] and interphalangeal joints of the finger. The knuckles at the base of the fingers may be referred to as the 1st[1] or major knuckles while the knuckles at the midfinger are known as the 2nd[2] and 3rd, or minor, knuckles. However, the ordinal terms are used inconsistently, and can be found referring to any of the knuckles.[3][4]
The popping or cracking noise heard when "cracking your knuckles" is caused by synovial fluid filling the vacuum left by the joint's displacement.[5]
Some people, when the clench their hand they can only see two knuckles but they can feel the other ones.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
KNUCKLE (apparently the diminutive of a word for "bone," found in Ger. Knochen), the joint of a finger, which, when the hand is shut, is brought into prominence. In mechanical use the word is applied to the round projecting part of a hinge through which the pin is run, and in ship-building to an acute angle on some of the timbers. A "knuckle-duster," said to have originally come from the criminal slang of the United States, is a brass or metal instrument fitting on to the hand across the knuckles, with projecting studs and used for inflicting a brutal blow.
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