Excrescence

//ɛkˈskɹɛsəns// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something, usually abnormal, which grows out of something else.

    "I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow: and I see others who have far too much of the excrescence—that tall girl, tell her to turn round."

  2. 2
    (pathology) an abnormal outgrowth or enlargement of some part of the body wordnet
  3. 3
    A disfiguring or unwanted mark or adjunct.

    "Being bussum buddies, the two friends often communicated with mere exchange of psychic forces, verbal communication having been rendered unnecessary excrescence."

  4. 4
    something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings wordnet
  5. 5
    The epenthesis of a consonant, e.g., warmth as [ˈwɔrmpθ] (adding a [p] between [m] and [θ]), or -t (Etymology 2).

Etymology

From Middle English, early 15th century, in sense “(action of) growing out (of something else)”. Borrowed from Latin excrescentia (“abnormal growths”), from excrescentem, from excrēscere, from ex- (“out”) (English ex-) + crēscere (“to grow”) (English crescent). Sense of “abnormal growth” from 1570s, from earlier excrescency (1540s in this sense).

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