slat

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   informal: a rib of the body, especially in the plural slats

   The jolt struck him across a slat in his rib cage.

From Middle English slatte, sklatte, sklat, sclat, from Old French esclat (“piece broken or split off, shiver, splinter”), from Old French esclater (“to split, burst”), from Frankish *slaitijan (“to split, break”), from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to rend, split”). Doublet of slate and éclat.

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