Word-Built World: melanism

Melanistic and typically colored jaguars. Photo: Eduardo Estrada / Wikimedia

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

melanism

PRONUNCIATION:

(MEL-uh-niz-uhm) 

MEANING:

noun: An inherited overproduction of melanin leading to unusually dark coloration.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek melano- (black). Earliest documented use: 1842.

NOTES:

Melanism is nature’s “dark mode”. The opposite of albinism (“light mode”). Iconic examples: black panthers, melanistic jaguars, and peppered moths that went goth during the Industrial Revolution.

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