Sehne

• Senne (equally common until ca. 1750, obsolete since ca. 1900)

From Middle High German sën(n)e, sën(e)we, from Old High German senawa, from Proto-West Germanic *sinu, which see. The forms Sehne and Senne alternated widely, though on the whole the former was more northern, the latter more southern.

• IPA^(key): /ˈzeːnə/, [ˈzeː.nə], (southern also) [ˈseː-], [-ne ~ -nɛ]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Seh‧ne
• Homophone: sehne

Sehne f (genitive Sehne, plural Sehnen)

1. (anatomy) sinew

   Synonyms: (loosely, nonmedical) Band, (medical) Tendo, (regional) Flechse

2. short for Bogensehne: bowstring
3. (geometry) chord, a straight line between two points of a curve
   • 1941 September, “The Why and the Wherefore: Curves”, in Railway Magazine, page 430:

     The simplest method of calculating the radius of a curve in situ is to measure the versine; in railway practice this is done by extending a tape 66 ft. (1 ch.) long in a straight line or chord between two points on the periphery of a curve, and then measuring the maximum distance of the rail from the chord at the centre of the 66 ft. The radius in chains is found by dividing the versine in inches into 99. Thus if a versine measures 3 in., the radius will be 33 ch.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “Sehne” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Sehne” in Duden online
• “Sehne” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.