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Jan 31, 2007

This week's theme
Words with hidden animals

This week's words
cynosure
chatoyant
coxcomb
dragoon
bulimia

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coxcomb

coxcomb (KOKS-kom) noun

A conceited man excessively interested in his appearance and dress; a fop.

[A variant of cock's comb (a rooster's crest).]

Jesters in medieval courts wore a cap with red strips like those in a rooster's crest. From there the sense of the term extended to a vain, pretentious dandy. Today we would describe him as metrosexual.

"At this general assembly of coxcombs, fops and the world's greatest dunces, Theobald, an unsuccessful writer, is crowned 'Chief of the Dunces'."
Fame Ndongo's Pyrrhic Victory; Peterkins Manyong; The Post (Buea, Cameroon); Jan 16, 2007.

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

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