Glabrous is a fat, ugly sounding disyllabic – and yet it slips satisfyingly from the mouth. The antithesis of hirsuteness, it is the logophile’s alternative to bald. Glabrous refers to a smooth, a surface without hairs or projections. Etymology: from Latin glaber (bald, hairless).

“By the age of fourteen, Omar stood at a man’s full height and his upper lip bore a dark and lustrous moustache. The other boys, shamed by their glabrous jowls and chins, avoided him.”