Wound that could have healed cleanly, but ended up as a very ugly scar

March 15, 2005 5:06 AM

Is there a word in any language that means "wound that could have healed cleanly, but ended up as a very ugly scar"?
posted by Jairus to writing & language (18 comments total)

In English - "my heart"
posted by dg at 5:24 AM on March 15, 2005

divorce?
posted by the cuban at 5:30 AM on March 15, 2005

Glornk

or

Schpah ?
posted by Witty at 5:36 AM on March 15, 2005

That's a very specific question...any more info?
You seem sure it exists. Why?
posted by peacay at 5:45 AM on March 15, 2005

Keloid ?
posted by Tarrama at 6:04 AM on March 15, 2005

"Keloid" is the first word I thought of.
posted by Prospero at 6:44 AM on March 15, 2005

Iraq?
posted by spicynuts at 6:58 AM on March 15, 2005

The first thought I had was proudflesh.
posted by veronica sawyer at 7:13 AM on March 15, 2005

You might try plugging in scar, wound, keloid, or other combinations of words into the Reverse Dictionary.
posted by booth at 7:48 AM on March 15, 2005

cicatrix
posted by zadcat at 8:03 AM on March 15, 2005

Not as concise as you're looking for, but disfigured is first thing that came to mind.
posted by furtive at 8:34 AM on March 15, 2005

I second the "keloid" comments above, it's the word you're looking for, but it's quite technical and probably lots of people won't immediately understand its meaning.

speaking of keloids: Body art: What to consider before getting stuck
posted by matteo at 10:43 AM on March 15, 2005

Keloid, as a matter of fact, is NOT the word you are looking for. Keloids are a very particular kind of scarring reaction with specific histological findings. It may be ugly, but I'm not sure it's a wound "that could have healed cleanly." At best keliods are a subset of the word you're looking for, but unfortunately I can't think of a single word that describes it in English.
posted by drpynchon at 11:46 AM on March 15, 2005

Keloids "could have healed cleanly," if the wound was on a person that isn't a keloid-former. But that's as close to "could have" as you're going to get.
posted by gramcracker at 11:50 AM on March 15, 2005

"Cicatrice" might be what you're looking for...
posted by Aquaman at 12:00 PM on March 15, 2005

You would think this would be a place where Klingon would finally come in handy, but I'm not finding anything.

It seems like there could be an additional bit of detail to what you are looking for -- are you looking for "a wound that could have healed cleanly, but ended up as a very ugly scar through neglect of the wound" or "a wound that could have healed cleanly, but ended up as a very ugly scar despite efforts to help it heal cleanly"? A very poetic concept either way.
posted by ontic at 12:39 PM on March 15, 2005

Slightly off-topic, but, I have one of those scars.
I call it a reminder. :P
(It was sorta self-inflicted, and, it could've healed cleanly, but, I decided that I needed a reminder of why I did what I did.)
posted by yeoz at 7:18 PM on March 15, 2005

The non-keloid sort of bad wound healing is called 'dystrophic scarring.' Or, if like me, you wish to be an 1850's Sorbonne physician with a starched waistcoast and a top hat, you might call it 'dystrophia cutis.'
posted by ikkyu2 at 2:39 AM on March 19, 2005