† mendoseadj.

Etymology: < classical Latin mendōsus faulty, erroneous, incorrect (in specific anatomical sense in post-classical Latin, apparently after the Hellenistic Greek use in this sense of ancient Greek νόθος spurious) < mendum (see mendacious adj.) + -ōsus -ose suffix¹. Compare Middle French mendeux (16th cent. in the medical writer Paré).The following quot. perhaps implies a post-classical Latin feminine noun mendosa (probably short for costa mendosa ), although this is not found in the passage translated:1588 J. Read tr. F. Arcaeus Compend. Method ii. i. f. 27^v Between the ribbes called Mendosae [L. inter costas mendosas nuncupatas]. The suture between the parietal bone and the temporal bone, which is not serrate, appears to have been characterized as ‘false’ in contradistinction to the ‘true’ (serrate) articulations of most of the other major sutures. With use designating the lower ribs compare false rib n. at false adj., adv., and n. Compounds 3.