Is it really possible that we were once so wrapped around that isthmus?
The only thing it rhymes with is isthmus, and that but loosely.
In 1685 they were joined in the Bay of Panama by large numbers of buccaneers who had crossed the isthmus under Townley and others.
He dreamed of cutting through an isthmus, I of inventing a gun.
I returned stoutly; for I had, of course, sunk the isthmus of Panama beneath the sea.
“One of the ruined cities of the isthmus,” Jimmie whispered.
Thus Solomon received tolls for horses and linen that passed over the isthmus of Syria.
He is an offshoot of the Spanish family that ruled the isthmus 153 after Balboa was shot.
Portobello had been a rich town, lying at the northern end of the usual route across the isthmus from Panama.
He is a spy, a Jap who has been hanging about the isthmus ever since the beginning of the work.
1550s, from Latin isthmus, from Greek isthmos "narrow passage, narrow neck of land," especially that of Corinth, of unknown origin, perhaps from eimi "to go" + suffix -thmo (cf. ithma "a step, movement").
isthmus isth·mus (ĭs'məs)
n. pl. isth·mus·es or isth·mi (-mī')
A constriction or narrow passage connecting two larger parts of an organ or other anatomical structure.
A narrow strip of land that connects two larger bodies of land and has water on both sides.