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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--coxcomb This week's theme: words with hidden animals. coxcomb (KOKS-kom) noun A conceited man excessively interested in his appearance and dress; a fop. [A variant of cock's comb (a rooster's crest).] Jesters in medieval courts wore a cap with red strips like those in a rooster's crest. From there the sense of the term extended to a vain, pretentious dandy. Today we would describe him as metrosexual. Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "At this general assembly of coxcombs, fops and the world's greatest dunces, Theobald, an unsuccessful writer, is crowned 'Chief of the Dunces'." Fame Ndongo's Pyrrhic Victory; Peterkins Manyong; The Post (Buea, Cameroon); Jan 16, 2007. X-Bonus Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East- to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them- who were above such trifling. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

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