Lanate

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Covered with or resembling soft, woolly hairs or fibers
2. Having a surface densely covered in soft, wool-like fibers resembling fine hairs
3. Characterized by a thick layer of soft, downy hairs that give a fuzzy appearance

Etymology: "Lanate" describes a surface covered in soft, woolly hairs, as on some leaves or stems. It arrived in English in 1760, borrowed directly from the Latin "lānātus," meaning "woolly." That Latin adjective is built from "lāna," the word for wool, plus the suffix "-ātus," which forms adjectives meaning "provided with" or "furnished with." So the word is essentially a botanical way of saying "wool-furnished." The root "lāna" is an ancient one that Romans used for the fleece of sheep, and it survives in English mainly through this kind of technical vocabulary. Since "lanate" is a plain borrowing of a Latin adjective, the English story is short: a Latin descriptive term adopted for careful description of plants and animals in the eighteenth century.

Synonyms: woolly, fuzzy, hairy

Antonyms: smooth, bald