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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. "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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