këmbë

• kâmb, kâm, këm

Tosk variant of Gheg kâmb, from Proto-Albanian *kam(b)ā, from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em-p (“to bend”). Close to Ancient Greek κάμπτω (kámptō, “curve, bend”), Sanskrit कम्पते (kampate, “trembles”), Latin campus (“field”), Lithuanian kam̃pas (“point, edge, angle”), Old High German hamf (“lame”). Related to Latin gamba. Orel (2000) discusses it as the reflex of a Romance camba but notes that the form is attested nowhere in Balkan Romance, while Huld argues the "direction of borrowing is uncertain". Camarda wondered if it was related to Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “bend”), while Rohlfs attributed it to a loan from that source.[1]

• IPA^(key): /kəm.bə/

këmbë f (indefinite plural këmbë, definite singular këmba, definite plural këmbët)

1. (anatomy) leg
2. (anatomy) foot