cicatrise means to heal a wound through scarring (by causing a scar or cicatrix to form). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
cicatrise is pronounced /ˈsɪk.ə.tɹaɪz/.
Why “cicatrise” is a great word
CICATRISE — [Verb] To heal or become healed by the formation of scar tissue. From Old French cicatriser (French cicatriser), from Latin cicātrīx ("scar") + the verbal suffix -ise/-ize. First recorded in English 1350–1400. Unlike "heal," which promises a general restoration of integrity, or "granulate," which describes the preliminary sprouting of new tissue, to cicatrise is to specify the final, fibrous closure—the body's permanent, visible mending. It is the puckered seam on a tree where a limb was lost, the glossy, hairless stripe on a forearm, and the silvery river-map left across a childhood knee—a durable, architectural revision, the body's quiet way of closing a chapter by leaving a monument in flesh.
Etymology
From Old French cicatriser (French cicatriser), from Latin cicātrīx (“scar”), equivalent to cicatrix + -ise.
verb
- To heal a wound through scarring (by causing a scar or cicatrix to form).“But hardly had I accused myself of the theft, when my arm was seized and my right hand cut off. When the stump was dipped in boiling oil to cicatrise the wound, I fell down in a faint.”
- To form a scar.