bogart

Pronounced: BOH-gart, verb

Notes: I didn’t know this was a word (thus its inclusion), but you may be able to guess the meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word pachydermatous means

• of or relating to the pachyderms
• thick; thickened
• callous; insensitive

First usage

This word came into usage in the early 1800s (maybe mid-1800s)

Background / Comments

In the late 1700s, a French zoologist (Georges Cuvier) called elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and other thick-skinned, hoofed mammal “Pachydermata”. This word has Greek roots and means “thick-skinned” in New Latin – the Latin used in scientific description and classification. In the 1800s, the French word came over into English as pachyderms; around the same time, our word came into being to describe, literally or figuratively, the characteristics and qualities of pachyderms – especially the thick skin. In the mid-1800s, an American poet (James Russell Lowell) used our word in the second and third sense.