cicatrix
Pronunciation: SIK-uh-TRIKS or si-KAY-triks
Definition: New tissue that forms over a wound and later contracts into a scar.
This is a cool sounding word of limited use to the layperson. For general fiction writers, unless you're composing poetry, if you need to mention a scar then say scar. Any word that should be used in everyday conversation would most certainly appear in a sentence somewhere in the first 5 pages of a Google search. Not so, cicatrix. Aside from appearing in medical journals, the only other search results pointed to a company and a band sporting the name. The fact that there is a company and a band named Cicatrix, though, proves there are a few of us out here who get our jollies by scouring the Webster's for obscure words.
Cicatrix can be a fine thread to weave into a fantasy yarn. The term vicious cicatrix refers to a scar that results in permanent deformity or loss of use of a limb. Vicious Cicatrix - now there's potential.
When would you use cicatrix? 1. If you want to sound like a doctor, but can't afford a night at the Holiday Inn Express; 2. To get a discount on a tree at Home Depot. Sure, you know that kid who's there to help answer your question is also pre-authorized to give a discount. Inform him that this mark on the trunk is going to result in a vicious cicatrix; 3. I don't know...come up with a joke: Did you hear the one about the doctor, the arborist and the crossword puzzle geek who walked into Starbucks... Is that your nose or a vicious cicatrix? (HAhahaha)