Verrucous

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a rough, bumpy exterior similar to a wart, often signifying an irregularity in surface texture or growth pattern related to skin lesions
2. Characterized by a surface that is uneven, bumpy, or resembling warts, often indicating an abnormal growth or texture of skin or other biological surfaces
3. Exhibiting a coarse, knobby texture similar to a wart covering the surface

Etymology: Latin "verruca" meant "wart," and the adjective "verrucous" is simply that noun with the English-style ending "-ous," meaning "full of" or "having." The Latin adjective "verrūcōsus" carried the same sense, and English took it over through Late Latin, the form of Latin used after the classical period. "Verrucose" is a doublet, a sibling word that came into English by a different route and so shows a slightly different form for the same meaning. Both describe a surface dotted with small, rounded, wart-like bumps, the kind found on some leaves, fungi, and the skin of certain animals. Naturalists used the word mostly in botany and zoology, where precise description of surface texture matters.

Synonyms: warts-like, papillomatous, tumorous, nodular, growth-like