Sunday Rest: penicillate. Word Not To Use Today.

Anyone with half a brain could work out that penicillate must be something to do with penicillin.

Sadly, though, they'd be, oh, so so wrong.

Word Not To Use Today: penicillate. This word means resembling, or having, many tufts of fine hairs. 

You probably know people like that, but the word is more often used of caterpillars. 


(Though this is actually a millipede, Physsonotus brevicapensis, photo by Mark Judson (MNHN Paris))

The word penicillate comes from the Latin word pēnicillus, brush, from pēnis, tail. 

The word penicillin comes from the same source, and is so called because the moulds which produce penicillin have hairy fruiting bodies.