troth

Pronounced: trawth (alt: trohth), noun

Notes: I’ve run across this word, but didn’t quite know the meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word dermatoglyphics means

• the ridge patterns of skin on the inner surface of the hands and feet
• the scientific study of these skin patterns

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1920s

Background / Comments

Did you spot what was unusual about our word? It has no repeated letters; in fact, this is one of the longest such word (‘uncopyrightable’ is another word; it is the same length as our word). You probably recognized “derma” as relating to the skin. In fact, a Dr Harold Cummins coined this word from the Greek word dermato- (skin) and glyphein (to carve).