lanugo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the fine, soft hair that temporarily covers a human fetus and may still be present on a newborn

   A layer of lanugo covers much of the fetus during the middle months of pregnancy.

2. 2
   noun

   fine down resembling fetal hair, especially as a pathological growth on an adult

   The clinician noted a new growth of lanugo on the patient's arms and back.

A learned borrowing from Latin lanugo, 'soft down or the first growth of a beard,' related to lana, 'wool.' Anatomists adopted the term for the wool-like fetal hair discussed in nineteenth-century accounts of human development.

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