A spelling bee word. I had a very lovable kitten that died of a trichobezoar.
Bezoar


Definition:
A ball of swallowed foreign material (usually hair or fiber) that collects in the stomach and
fails to pass through the intestines.


Alternative Names:
Trichobezoar; Hairball

What did the "tricho" have to do with the "bezoar"?

I've heard of trichonosis, but that's something altogether different, isn't it?

Tut,tut,meine liebe Wortkennerin, remember trichotillomania, trichiasis,trichotomists,
Remember anal trichiasis, having a hair across.....its a hairy topic.
A trichobezoar is a hairball. Longhaired kittens grooming themselves swallow enough hairs which
will not digest, don't even leave stomach, until there is a golfball sized mass obstructing the
pylorus. I had never seen it before, and could not imagine what was wrong. I found it on PM,

Well, if a bezoar is a hairball, and tricho = hair, then it seems a trichobezoar is a hairy hairball.

I've heard of hairy eyeballs, but this is the first I've heard of hairy hairballs.

It would have made a great Hogwash word. You should have sent it to tsuwm!

bezoar
n.
5Fr b=zoard < Sp bezoar < Ar bazahr < Pers padzahr < pad, protecting (against) + zahr, poison6 a concretion found in the stomach or intestines of some animals, esp. ruminants, and sometimes humans, formerly thought to be an antidote for poisons

Dear WW: as above, note that the hairy ones were not in original mentions.