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Oct 23, 2007

This week's theme
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This week's words
famulus
caruncle
lexiphanes
dewclaw
nosism

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caruncle

noun: A fleshy growth, such as a rooster's comb.

From Latin caruncula (small piece of flesh), diminutive of caro (flesh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that is also the source of skirt, curt, screw, shard, shears, carnage, carnivorous, carnation, sharp, and scrape.

"Some turkeys feint, some scream, some just shake their caruncles."
Barry Janoff; Why Turkeys Use Fowl Language; Brandweek (New York); Apr 4, 2005.

See more usage examples of caruncle in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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