Floccose
/ˈflɒkəʊs/noun
Covered with or resembling soft tufts, woolly fibers, or small clumps.
Did you know?Floccose comes from Latin floccus, a tuft of wool, the same textile image that produced scientific terms for particles gathering into visible clumps.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Latin
Latin
floccus
“A tuft or lock of wool; a small piece of fleece”
Late Latin
Latin
floccosus
“Woolly or furnished with tufts”
Medieval Latin
Latin
floccosus
“Having a wool-like or tufted texture”
17th Century
New Latin
floccosus
“Botanically or zoologically woolly, tufted, or covered in soft fibers”
19th Century
English
floccose
“Woolly or composed of small tufts, especially in natural-history description”
Modern English
English
floccose
“Having a soft, wool-like, tufted, or clumped surface”
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