THE FIRST WORD

decorticate

PRONUNCIATION:

(dee-KOR-ti-kayt) 

MEANING:

verb tr.: To remove the outer layer, such as the bark, husk, rind, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin decorticare (to peel), from de- (from) + cortex (bark). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut), which is also the source of skirt, curt, screw, shard, shears, carnage, carnivorous, carnation, sharp, scrape, and excoriate. Earliest documented use: 1611.

USAGE:

"The idea, the sensation, the moment of intuition are decorticated and communicated with intimacy and lucidity."
Marguerite Dorian; Demon in Brackets; World Literature Today; Jun 1995.