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Oct 23, 2007
This week's theme
There is a word for it

This week's words
famulus
caruncle
lexiphanes
dewclaw
nosism


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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

caruncle

(KAR-ung-kuhl) Pronunciation Sound Clip

noun: A fleshy growth, such as a rooster's comb.

From Latin caruncula (small piece of flesh), diminutive of caro (flesh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that is also the source of skirt, curt, screw, shard, shears, carnage, carnivorous, carnation, sharp, and scrape.

"Some turkeys feint, some scream, some just shake their caruncles."
Barry Janoff; Why Turkeys Use Fowl Language; Brandweek (New York); Apr 4, 2005.

See more usage examples of caruncle in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

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