glabrous

Pietro Perugino’s painting Don Biagio Milanesi, from the predella of the Vallombrosa Altarpiece (1500), depicts the glabrous abbot of the Vallombrosa Abbey in Tuscany, Italy.

The undersides of the leaves of the European crab apple (Malus sylvestris) are glabrous.

From Latin glaber (“smooth; bald, hairless”) + English -ous (suffix forming adjectives, denoting possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance). Glaber is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *gʰleh₂dʰ- (“smooth; bright, shining”), possibly from *ǵʰelh₂- (“to shine”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡleɪbɹəs/, /ˈɡlæ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡleɪbɹəs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbɹəs
• Hyphenation: glabr‧ous

glabrous (comparative more glabrous, superlative most glabrous)

1. Bald, hairless; smooth.

   Synonym: calvous

   Antonyms: nonglabrous; see also Thesaurus:hirsute

   • 1670, John Evelyn, “. Chapter IV. Of the Elm.”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. , 2nd edition, London: Jo Martyn, and Ja Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 28:

     he Vernacula or French Elm, whoſe leaves are thicker, and more florid, glabrous and ſmooth, delighting in the lower and moiſter grounds, where they will ſometimes riſe to above an hundred foot in height;

   • 1834, Robert Wight, G A Walker-Arnott, “Order LVI.—Leguminosæ. Juss.”, in Prodromus Floræ Peninsulæ Indiæ Orientalis: Containing Abridged Descriptions of the Plants Found in the Peninsula of British India, Arranged According to the Natural System , volume I, London: Parbury, Allen, & Co., →OCLC, paragraph 572, page 186:

     Stems tall, erect, branched: stipules not decurrent: leaves simple, usually glabrous on the upper side: legumes oblong, many-seeded, glabrous or softly pubescent.

   • 1973, Patrick O’Brian, chapter 1, in HMS Surprise, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2002, →ISBN, page 2:

     'I am bound by precedent,' said the First Lord, turning a vast glabrous expressionless face from Harte to Sir Joseph.

   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!: Six Stories, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 190:

     Adriaan rose, pulling out his limbering glabrous cock, his eyes happy.

   • 1981, T Coraghessan Boyle, “Mo O Mo Inta Allo”, in Water Music (The Penguin Contemporary American Fiction Series), New York, N.Y., London: Penguin Books, published 1983, →ISBN, part 1 (The Niger), page 143:

     The glabrous old head cranks round on him, stiff and slow, until the clouded eyes draw level with his own.

• hirsute

• glabrate
• glabrescent

• hair loss on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• glabrousness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia