GLABELLA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 20 March 2012

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

GLABELLA  (n. pl. GLABELLAE)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the small, usually smooth area on the human forehead between the eyebrows and just above the nose

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -E, -R
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: GLABRATE (adj.), GLABROUS (adj.), GLABELLAR (adj.), GLABRESCENT (adj.)

Epilogue:
Once I learn a word like this, a perfectly precise word for a common thing, I wonder how I ever managed without it.  The word comes from the Latin glaber, meaning “smooth or bald.”  Similarly, GLABRATE and GLABROUS can mean “smooth or hairless,” while the useful GLABRESCENT means “tending to become glabrous with age or maturity” — it is usually used with reference to plants, but more than one writer has referred to a man’s “glabrescent scalp.”


Theme:
A body of words pertaining to human anatomy


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =