of, or having the nature of, a scirrhus; hard and fibrous
Word origin
ModL scirrhosus < scirrhus
scirrhous in American English
(ˈskɪrəs, ˈsɪr-)
adjective Pathology
1.
of a hard, fibrous consistency
2.
of, relating to, or constituting a scirrhus
Derived forms
scirrhosity (skɪˈrɑsɪti)
noun
Word origin
[1555–65; scirrh(us) + -ous]This word is first recorded in the period 1555–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: halo, pulp, review, social, straddle-ous is a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense “possessing, full of”a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannotbe directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greekand Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formationsare productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominalcombining form that has no suffix (as -fer and -ferous; -phore and -phorous; -pter and -pterous; -vore and -vorous)