The knee. Dull stuff. Honestly, the only reason I chose knee for today's hump is because I thought it'd be fun to take a Nutella jar and Photoshop "Patella" onto it. In case you don't know patella is the scientific name for the knee-cap and is a diminutive of the Latin patina, meaning "plate" (because of its shape).

Similarly, Catholics use a small plate, a paten, to hold the host during the Eucharist. The Catholics are also known for genuflecting, the act of bending the knee, usually during worship. Genuflect is from the Latin genu (knee) + flectere (to bend). The Latin genu has analagous forms in other languages: Sanskrit janu, Greek gonu, Gothic kniu and Old English cneo. From the OE it's not difficult to see where our modern spelling comes from.

genuflect [OED]
knee [OED]
knee [Online Etymology Dictionary]
genuflect [Online Etymology Dictionary]
patella [AHD]
paten [AHD]

Labels: Gothic, Greek, Latin, Old English, Sanskrit, The Daily Hump