Apparently, thick ankles are often called “peasant ankles” for the ostensible stability and hardiness due to the wide, steady base of the legs, which aids in long hours of tillage and harvesting. As such, the condition is most prominent in women of Russian or Italian ancestry according to an online lexicon. F. Scott Fitzgerald in his book, Tender Is the Night wrote: “Exploration was for those with a measure of peasant blood, those with big thighs and thick ankles who could take punishment as they took bread and salt, on every inch of flesh and spirit.” And, according to the book Twentieth-Century Janissary, thin ankles are a sign of "good breeding and ancestry".
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