Word of the Day

: July 14, 2007

pilgarlic

noun pil-GAR-lik

What It Means

1 a : a bald head

b : a bald-headed man

2 : a man looked upon with humorous contempt or mock pity

pilgarlic in Context

"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.