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Dec 23, 2011
This week's theme
Words to describe various bodily configurations

This week's words
callipygous
prognathous
mammose
platyrrhine
lissotrichous

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Archaic words
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

lissotrichous

PRONUNCIATION:
(li-SO-tri-kuhs)

MEANING:
adjective: Having straight or smooth hair.

ETYMOLOGY:
The origin of this word isn't hairy at all. It's pretty straightforward -- the word is from Greek lissos (smooth) and thrix (hair). Some cousins of this word are cymotrichous (having wavy hair), trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out one's hair), and its end result atrichia (baldness). Earliest documented use: 1880.

USAGE:
"Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour notwithstanding, women really aspire to be lissotrichous brunettes, since sleekness and shine - the season's chief criteria - show much better on dark hair."
Pamela Swanigan; Blondness: It's Probably Not the Real Thing; Vancouver Sun (Canada); Jun 16, 2001.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religion. -William Howard Taft, 27th US president (1857-1930)

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