Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Tussock

tussock |ˈtəsəknouna small area of grass that is thicker or longer than the grass growingaround it.(also tussock moth)woodlandmoth whose adults and brightlycolored caterpillars both bear tuftsof irritant hairs. The caterpillarscan be a pest of treesdamagingfruit and stripping leaves.
DERIVATIVES tussocky adjective
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.perhaps an alteration of dialect tusktuft, of unknown origin.
The word came up when I was doing research into fantasy creatures.

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