Floating ribs are four atypical ribs (two lowermost pairs, XI-XII) in the human ribcage. They are called so because they are attached to the vertebrae only, and not to the sternum or cartilage coming off the sternum. Some people are missing one of the two pairs. Others have a third pair. Most, however, possess two pairs.
Their position can be permanently altered by a form of body modification called tightlacing, which uses a corset to compress and move the ribs.
Famous quotes containing the words floating and/or rib:
“Again we mistook a little rocky islet seen through the “drisk,” with some taller bare trunks or stumps on it, for the steamer with its smoke-pipes, but as it had not changed its position after half an hour, we were undeceived. So much do the works of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Man created woman—out of what? Out of a rib of his god—of his “ideal.””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)