Tettered

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Afflicted with or suffering from a contagious skin disease characterized by itching, inflammation, and the formation of crusty lesions; affected by a similar condition causing scaly or ulcerated patches
2. Experiencing a dermatological disorder involving itchy eruptions and crusted sores that may spread; having a condition marked by irritating skin blemishes typically caused by infection
3. Showing signs of a skin ailment that produces itchy, inflamed patches possibly covered with scabs; demonstrating symptoms of a contagious or persistent cutaneous irritation or rash

Etymology: "Tettered" is the past tense and past participle of "tetter", a word for a skin eruption, so the sentence is simply describing something as covered in such eruptions. The noun came into English from Old English "teter", "tetr" and "tetra", a word that has been in the language since the earliest written records, and it goes back through Proto-Germanic "tetruz" to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to flay, split, crack", a reminder that the earliest sense was about breaking open the skin. The verb is a later use of the same stem, so "tettered" describes skin made rough and broken in this way. The root's sense of splitting survives in the picture of the skin cracking into patches and scabs.

Synonyms: affected by eczema, scabby, crusted, inflamed

Antonyms: healthy, unaffected, clean