Akademik

n.

A thick ankle, particularly one that appears to be a continuation of the calf.

Montana wants to get rid of her "cankles" — ankles as thick as calves.

— Kerrie Murphy, "Class clown trails pack," The Weekend Australian, January 10, 2004

But think about it, if your ankles or calves are large enough to be mistaken for each other, or worse yet, if they seemed to have formed a unit called the "cankle," and you could do something about it — wouldn't you?

— Keith Olbermann, "Countdown," MSNBC, June 27, 2003

What's the first thing you notice in a woman? Whether she has cankles or not. Cankles are where your calves slide right down into your ankles.

— Charean Williams, "Q&A ... With Mike Vanderjagt," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 10, 2000

This silly yet strangely useful word is a blend (pun intended) of calf and ankle. I've seen claims that the word was coined by football analyst John Madden — the earliest citation comes from Mike Vanderjagt, an NFL placekicker, who may have picked it up from Madden. Lacking definitive proof of this, I can only offer this wonderful interchange with Madden and his broadcasting partner Pat Summerall:

As Madden looked at the physique of the Rams' Jeff Zgonina, a 6-foot-2, 305-pound defensive tackle, he said, "Ever see his legs?" He noted that the area between Zgonina's calves and ankles — the cankles, he labeled them — were the biggest he had ever seen. (Madden, a former offensive lineman, has sizable cankles, too.)

Summerall added: "We've got a new one for the books. He's got a 38 cankle."

— Richard Sandomir, "It May Not Be Right, But That's the Rule," The New York Times, January 21, 2002