A clogged pore in the skin containing dead skin cells and sebum (oil); the medical term for a blackhead or whitehead.
From Latin 'comedo,' literally 'gluttonous person' (from 'comedere' to eat up), because the lesion resembles something feeding on the skin. The term was adopted into medical terminology in the 18th-19th centuries to describe the appearance.
The Latin 'comedo' means 'glutton'—doctors named acne spots after greedy eaters because they look like tiny mouths eating away at your skin, which is both medically precise and weirdly poetic!
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