pollex

Paltroon is from pollex, a thumb, and truncare, to cut off; for cowards use to cut their thumbs to avoid service.

In the anterior limb the radius and the pollex are pre-axial, the ulna and the fifth finger are postaxial.

The posterior limb is, as a rule, pentedactylate, but in nearly every case the pollex is vestigial or absent.

The hand consists of four complete digits, and a vestigial pollex reduced to a short metacarpal.

The first digit or pollex includes two phalanges, the distal one being very small and bearing a claw.