Cicatrix

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈsɪ.kəˌtɹɪks/

Definitions

1. A permanent mark or scar formed when tissue heals after injury or illness, or a lasting trace of emotional or psychological harm
2. The fibrous tissue that remains visible after a wound closes, or any enduring evidence of past damage or trauma
3. A healed area of skin or tissue that leaves a visible scar after an injury ; a lingering impression or wound on the mind from emotional distress

Etymology: Latin "cicatrix" meant the scar left when a wound closes, and the English word simply took it over whole. Its deeper roots are uncertain: scholars have long linked it to "cicatrix" forms that may come from a verb meaning to dry up or harden, which would suit a scar as tissue that hardens over a wound, but this connection is not settled and should be treated as a guess. In English the word stayed largely within medicine and botany for centuries. Surgeons and anatomists used it for the mark left by a healed injury, and the same vocabulary later appeared in describing the marks left on plants when leaves or stems fall away. The figurative sense, a lasting trace of emotional or psychological harm, grew out of the physical one, so that a memory or experience can now leave a "cicatrix" just as a cut does.

Synonyms: scar