vitiligo

American  

[vit-l-ahy-goh, -ee-goh] / ˌvɪt lˈaɪ goʊ, -ˈi goʊ /

noun

Pathology.

1. a skin disorder characterized by smooth, white patches on various parts of the body, caused by the loss of the natural pigment.

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vitiligo British  

/ ˌvɪtɪˈlaɪɡəʊ /

noun

1. another name for leucoderma

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• vitiliginous
  adjective
• vitiligoid
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of vitiligo

1650–60; < Latin vitilīgō form of skin eruption, apparently equivalent to *vitil ( is ) defective ( vit ( ium ) blemish + -ilis -ile ) + -īgō noun suffix

Explanation

A skin condition that results in pale patches on a person's skin is called vitiligo. Once vitiligo first appears, it often spreads to other parts of the body. There's no known cure for vitiligo, which has no physical symptoms aside from a loss of pigmentation, or color, on a person's skin. The difficult part of having vitiligo is that people can be stigmatized or bullied for looking different. Recently, however, more companies have been using models with vitiligo in ad campaigns to show that looking different is beautiful.