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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Crus, Crures (quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod bracchia vellis)
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2024 22:19:48 +1200
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On 11/06/2024 9:49 p.m., Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> 
>   Ar an naoiú lá de mí Meitheamh, scríobh HenHanna:
> 
>   > Crus, Crures ("leg") is Not related to Latin crusta (“shell”)
>   >
>   >            https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Crustacea  is not related
>   >
>   > Crus, Crures ("leg") is Not related to any word in English or French
> 
> “Crural” exists in anatomy jargon and is used by those who use anatomy jargon.
> It would not shock me if something similar were the case in French.
> 
> https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22crural%22
> 
>
Et voilà! There it is in French, same spelling, same origin. Both words 
first appear in the 16th century (OED 1599, translation of a work by 
Gaebelkhover; Dauzat says XVI century, from the anatomist Ambroise Paré).

So a direct borrowing from Latin, not an inherited word. Apparently crus 
was replaced in late Latin by gamba, originally 'horse's leg'.
While "foot" (PIE *ped-) is one of the great stable items, words for 
'leg' seem to be much more volatile. (Of course many languages get along 
without a primary lexical distinction between the two.)