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Thursday, July 8, 2010

New Vocabulary: Philtrium

I was reading my textbook when I came across a word which I was unsure of. Thus, I decided to use the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary to search for the meaning of that word.

On the homepage of the website, I saw this page which says Top 10: Words for things you didn't know have names and the first word saw was Philtrium and the following is the explanation.

#1: Philtrum

Definition:

philtrum : the vertical groove on the median line of the upper lip

Example Sentence:

His chiseled features even included a well-defined philtrum.

Origin:

In Greek, the primary meaning of philtrum is "love potion" – which suggests that seductive powers were attributed to this facial feature.


I thought it was quite interesting since I have always known that part of the face as 人中 (rén zhōng) without knowing what the english term. Now I finally know it as philtrium and I'll probably remember it for life.

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