A type of joint that allows movement in only one plane, like a hinge, such as the elbow or knee joint.
Directly from Greek 'ginglymos' meaning hinge, borrowed into Latin and then English medical terminology. The term references the hinge of a door, the visual inspiration for naming this joint type.
The ancient Greeks created this word by literally observing that some joints move like door hinges—and we still use their exact same word in modern anatomy textbooks over 2,000 years later!
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