ilium

• ilion (4th to 7th centuries)

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

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

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.).

In modern usage, ilium always refers to the bones of the hip and pelvis while ileum always refers to the part of the small intestine. To remember the different spellings, one mnemonic is that there is an -i- in the middle of both ilium and hip; another is that ileus affects the ileum, and both have an -e-.

Or the two -i- in ilium look like bones and the -e- in ileum is squiggly like an intestine.

• ischium
• pubis

• iliac
• ilio-

ilium m (plural iliums)

1. ilium

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

Back-formation from īlia, plural of īle.

īlium n (genitive īliī or īlī); second declension

1. Alternative form of īle.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

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

• → English: ilium

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

īlium n

1. genitive plural of īle

• “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
• “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