Word of the day: Glabrous

[D. Allan]

gla·brous pronunciation [gley-bruh s]

–adjective Zoology, Botany.

Having a surface devoid of hair or pubescence.

[Origin: 1630–40; < L glabr- (s. of glaber) smooth, hairless + -OUS ]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v1.1)

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary

Copyright Random House, Inc. 2006

Related forms:

glabrate adj. glabrous or becoming glabrous.

glabrescent adj. becoming glabrous.

glabrousness noun

Among humans the male often has a glabrescent scalp, (becoming bald). The female scalp is rarely glabrous.

Click here: http://www.missouriplants.com/Greenalt/Polygonatum_biflorum_inflorescence.jpg to see a photo of a plant with glabrous stem, leaves and flowers. Is it commonly called King Solomons Seal? Beautiful!

Use the word in a sentence to help you remember it. And post it here, please. Maybe you could even find occasions to use the word in your other posts here on the forum!

[LynnDel]

Considering your last post about "fallow," I am wondering if you have a theme going here!

[D. Allan]

Every time I look in the mirror I'm reminded that nothing is growing up there. The inside, I hope, is more productive!

[Liz]

I had an Aunt that had lots of little dogs and cats in her house; it would have taken a week of cleaning to make her house glabrous.

Actually that sentence makes it sound like I don't know how to say glamourous. I don't think her house could have ever been glamourous though, even if you could have gotten it glabrous.

Liz

[D. Allan]

That really funny, Liz. It sounds like someone who has a cold trying to say glamourous!

We used to have two dogs in a house with hardwood oak floors. The floors were never glabrous. They were pubescent with soft downy hairs. Sometimes downright hirsute!

[Jeannieb43]

LOL.

[Methinks D.Allen is fixated on his pate.]

But I really enjoy words! This is a new one to me....

[Parade Orange]

Her face was like alabaster-Glabrous and milky white!

did me do it right?

[D. Allan]

You did that sm-ooooooo-thly.

[D. Allan]

Another novel related word from the same Latin root is glabella, (noun) the smooth area between the eyebrows just above the nose.

I never learned that as a child!

[Bravus]

Is there a word that's the opposite of onomatopoiea? For words that *don't* sound like what they describe? To me 'glabrous' sounds like 'scabrous', like kind of a crusty, grotty word, not something that describes smoothness and hairlessness.

[D. Allan]

I don't know, Bravus, about words that sound opposite of or just not anywhere near their meaning. Do you have any more examples?

Glabrous to me sounds smooth, maybe because it makes me think of words like glacier, glacial, glace, glass, glob , glib, bowling ball,... whoops, the mind is strange.

"Thought" or "think" don't sound right do they?? Should be more etherial, like "hmmm". Hmmmm about it.

[D. Allan]

For an antonym to 'onomatopoetic' I found this word:

nonechoic

adjective

not echoic or imitative of sound [ant: echoic]

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University

That should be useful in speaking of some words.