meniscus

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "How I Tried to STOP SNORING" からの引用です。

It has been a tough year. A friend passed away suddenly and tragically. Then my grandmother followed. My chronic knee problems turned into a fullblown meniscus tear, dashing any hopes of a late-life bloom into a guy who is "surprisingly athletic" and revealing a body that is eroding with time.

"meniscus" は膝の故障なので半月板を指しているようですが、辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: a crescent-shaped fibrous cartilage between the bones at certain joints, esp at the knee: However, he was unable to fight because of a torn meniscus.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a curved piece of cartilage inside a joint (= place where two bones are connected) of the body such as the knee: A bad move shattered the meniscus and the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

"meniscus" は膝の半月板以外の意味もあるので注意。
・Vocabulary.com: The next time you pour some fluid into a tube, look at it from the side. You will see the liquid has a slight curve, either up or down. This curved surface, created by air pressure, is called a meniscus.
The Greeks had a word for the lunar crescent, mēniskos, which itself came from the word for the moon, mḗnē. In the late 17th Century, the word meniscus was given to similarly-curved lenses. Then in 1812, the curved surfaces of liquid were referred to by this word as well. Later, the name was also applied to a crescent-shaped cartilage at the knee, between the tibia and the femur. These small, semi-lunar bits are important for reducing friction during leg movement.
実は私も１０月に膝を痛めて走ることができなくなり、１０月と１１月の三つのレースを棄権しました。ランニングを始めて１６年目ですが、レースを棄権したのは今年が初めてです。医者によると間接の骨と骨の間が狭くなっている、歳のせいだと言われました。MRIの無い医者なのでレントゲンだけでの診断で "meniscus" も損傷しているかどうかは不明です。

P.S.　膝の痛みが減ったのでランニングの練習を再開したら痛みが再発し、自転車も乗れない程になったので、医者に診てもらったら、膝に血が溜まっていました。痛みが完全になくなるまでランニングは控えることにしました。