Word of the Day

: April 2, 2014

hirsute

adjective HER-soot

What It Means

1 : hairy

2 : covered with coarse stiff hairs

hirsute in Context

Turner wore a hirsute mask as part of his werewolf costume for the school play.

"Forget the Oscars … and make way for ... The Fluffies. No, it's nothing to do with overly hirsute cats or cute rabbits. The latest awards concerning the travel industry are for the best towels and pillows found in hotels across the UK." - From an article on MailOnline, February 28, 2014

Did You Know?

"Hirsute" has nearly the same spelling and exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, "hirsutus." The word isn't quite one of a kind, though; it has four close relatives: "hirsutism" and "hirsuties," synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth; "hirsutal," an adjective meaning "of or relating to hair"; and "hirsutulous," a mostly botanical term meaning "slightly hairy" (as in "hirsutulous stems"). The latter three are not especially common but are entered in our Unabridged Dictionary.