pilgarlic

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2007 is: pilgarlic • \pil-GAR-lik\  • noun 1 a : a bald head b : a bald-headed man 2 : a man looked upon with humorous contempt or mock pity Examples: "Ever since I became a pilgarlic," Dale explained, "I've believed that bald is beautiful!" Did you know? The Latin word for "hair" -- "pilus" -- has given us a number of words: "depilation" ("the removal of hair by chemical or mechanical means"), "pilose" ("covered with soft hair"), and "pelage" ("the hairy covering of a mammal"). "Pilgarlic" also has ties to "pilus," although the person who first used the word in the 16th century was probably thinking about cloves, not Latin roots. "Pilgarlic" comes from the supposed resemblance between a bald head and peeled garlic -- "pilled garlic," in British dialect. The verb "pill" comes in part from the Old English "pilian" ("to peel"), which is thought to trace back to "pilus." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.