excorticate

English

Etymology

From Latin ex (“out”), from cortex, corticis (“bark”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈskɔː(ɹ)tɪkeɪt/

Verb

excorticate (third-person singular simple present excorticates, present participle excorticating, simple past and past participle excorticated)

1. (archaic or obsolete) To strip of bark, shell or skin.

   Synonyms: decorticate, delibrate

   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 69:

     Moſs is to be rubb'd and ſcrap'd off with ſome fit inſtrument of Wood, which may not excorticate the Tree, or with a piece of Hair-cloth after a ſobbing Rain: [...]

   • 1821, John Knowles, An Inquiry Into the Means which Have Been Taken to Preserve the British Navy […] :

     The sap-wood of the excorticated winter-felled timber, kept in piles in his Majesty's yards, has rotted

   • 1842, Albert Smith, “Mr. Ledbury's Adventures at Home and Abroad (Chapter II)”, in Bentley's Miscellany:

     His mouth was dry and parched; his hands red and swollen, and looking about the nails as if he had been excorticating millions of new walnuts.

Derived terms

• excortication

References

• “excorticate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.