peachfuzz

Why this word is great

PEACHFUZZ — [Noun] The soft, scanty beard of an adolescent male or the fine fuzz found on the skin of a peach. From peach (the fruit) + fuzz (fine, light fibers or hair). Unlike "stubble" (which bristles with the coarse insistence of adulthood) or "down" (which clings to infancy, feather-light and fleeting), peachfuzz is the hesitant, half-formed threshold between boy and man, between fruit and flesh. It is the golden haze on a sun-warmed peach, the whisper of first growth on a teenager’s jaw, the way light catches on something not quite there—a fleeting proof of becoming, tender and transient.