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Apr 28, 2021
This week’s theme
Words made with animal parts

This week’s words
rostrum
carapace
hackle
pinnacle
hightail

hackle
A coyote with raised hackles
Photo: Ron Dudley

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

hackle

PRONUNCIATION:
(HAK-uhl)

MEANING:
noun:1. Hairs or feathers on the neck or back of some animals that stand up when the animal is agitated.
 2. Temper; anger.
 3. A comb for dressing fiber.
verb tr.:To comb flax, hemp, or other fibers with a hackle.

ETYMOLOGY:
Either a variant of heckle, from Middle English hechelen (to comb flax) or from Old English hacele (coat, cloak). Earliest documented use: 900.

USAGE:
“He’d made her hackles rise faster than a bee’s wings could flap. The gall of him saying he would wait for her to propose to him was shocking.”
Amelia Grey; The Duke In My Bed; St. Martin’s; 2014.

See more usage examples of hackle in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There is a rumor going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. -Terry Pratchett, novelist (28 Apr 1948-2015)

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