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Mar 12, 2010
This week's theme
Words related to 16

This week's words
semiquaver
steenth
armageddon
lincolnesque
trichotillomania

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Words about food and eating
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

trichotillomania

PRONUNCIATION:
(trik-uh-til-uh-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING:
noun: A compulsion to pull out one's hair.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek tricho- (hair) + tillein (to pluck, pull out) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). A related word is trichology (the word for the study and treatment of hair and its disorders).

USAGE:
"Like many with trichotillomania, Neomie said she got some sense of relief and satisfaction from pulling out her hair."
Michelle Roberts; Women Who Tear Their Hair Out; BBC News (London, UK); Jul 6, 2009.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery. -George Polya, professor of mathematics (1887-1985)

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