Etymology

melasma

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Today it means: A tan or dark skin discoloration, particularly common in pregnant women, thought to be caused by the stimulation of melanocytes by estrogen and progesterone. Full definition →

Latin melasma ← Ancient Greek μέλασμα
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromμέλασμα
  2. Latin · borrowed frommelasma
  3. English todaymelasma

From Latin melasma, from Ancient Greek μέλασμα (mélasma), from μελαίνειν (melaínein, “to blacken”) + -σμα (-sma), from μέλας (mélas, “black”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.