Freckle

Freckle (pronounced frek-uhl)

(1) One of the small, brownish spots on the skin that are caused by a localized deposition of the pigment melanin and that increase in number and darken on exposure to sunlight.

(2) Any small spot or discoloration.

(3) To cover with freckles; produce freckles on.

(4) To become freckled.

(5) In Australia, a small, disk-like sweet consisting of a flattish mound of chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands.

1350-1400: From the Middle English freken & frekel, from the Old Norse (plural) freknur (freckles) (and related to the Old Norse freknōttr (speckled) the Swedish fräkna & fräknar, the Norwegian & Icelandic frekna and the Danish fregne & fregner), a variant of the Old English sprecel from the Proto-Germanic sprekalą (freckle) (and related to the dialectal Norwegian sprekla and the Middle High German spreckel), from the primitive Indo-European sp(h)er(e)g- (to strew, to sprinkle).  It was cognate with the Albanian fruth (measles).  The verb freckle (to cover with spots) dated from the 1610s, the adjective freckled existing since the late fourteen century in the sense of “spotted”.  Freckle is a noun & verb, freckled & freckly are adjective and the verbs (used without object) are freckled & freckling.  The noun plural is freckles and the long obsolete alternative form from the late fourteenth century was frecken.

The similar noun fleck (a mark on skin, a freckle) from the 1590s was presumably from the verb fleck or a related word elsewhere in Germanic, such as the Middle Dutch vlecke or the Old Norse flekkr (a fleck, spot); from circa 1750 meaning extended to "a small particle" and from 1804. "a patch, a spot" of any kind.  The technical term for a freckle is ephelis.  Ephelis is from the Latin ephēlis, from the Ancient Greek ἔφηλῐς (éphēlis) (a freckle), the construct being ἐπ- (ep-) (upon, over, (ie epi-)) +‎ ἥλῐος (hḗlios) (the sun) +‎ -ῐς (-is), the nominal suffix).  The plural is ephelides.  The freckle (ephelis) differs from a lentigo in that a lentigo is a pigmented flat or slightly raised lesion with a clearly defined edge.  Unlike an ephelis (freckle), it does not fade in the winter months and dermatologists define several kinds of lentigo. The name lentigo originally referred to its appearance resembling a small lentil and they’re often now referred to as beauty spots or marks, a la Marilyn Munroe.  To a dermatologist, freckle & ephelis are synonymous but in general vaguely related words include synonyms include blemish, blotch, mole, daisy, dot, lentigo, macula, patch, pepper, pigmentation, pit, pock, pockmark, speck, speckle, sprinkle & stipple.

A freckle is an area of the skin with more pigmentation than the surrounding area, a clustering of concentrated melaninized cells which appear more obvious on those with light skin.  Counter intuitively, the skin which manifests as a freckle doesn’t have any more melanin-producing cells (or melanocytes) than the surrounding skin but instead has melanocytes that overproduce melanin granules (melanosomes), thus darkening the color of the outer cells (keratinocytes).  In this, a freckle differs from a mole in that the latter is an accumulation of melanocytes in a small area.

#freckles: Lindsay Lohan out shopping.

Of the six skin types on the Fitzpatrick spectrum, (1) Pale white skin with blue or green eyes & blonde or red hair (always burns, does not tan), (2), Fair skin with blue eyes (burns easily, tans poorly), (3), Darker white skin (tans after initial burn), (4), Light brown skin (burns minimally, tans easily), (5), Brown skin (rarely burns, tans darkly & easily & (6), Dark brown or black skin, freckles appear most frequently and are most apparent upon types (1) & (2) but can exist on anyone.  Like just about everything, the existence of freckles ultimately dependent on genetics and related to a particular gene although geneticists note the presence of at least one of two or more versions of the MC1R gene is usually required for freckles to form, the genetic combination does not guarantee an instance and in their absence, freckles may still exist.  Thus those with the gene combination are much more likely to be freckled while in those without, the instance is rare.  The MC1R gene correlates even more strongly with the red hair which is, impressionistically, so associated with freckles and it is true the two are the most frequently seen combination among the freckled, most red-heads having two variants of the MC1R gene and almost all have one.  Freckling exists even among populations, such as those of East Asia, where there is no natural occurrence of red hair but there, while genetically determined, it’s a different gene from MC1R, intriguingly one found in European populations where any influence on pigmentation is rare.

Lindsay Lohan's fridge magnet.

For centuries, many with freckles have sought their removal and by the nineteenth century, demand meant the process was part of the beauty industry.  Hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid), ammonium, hydrogen peroxide and liquid carbon dioxide could be effective and were certainly safer (if used correctly) than bi-chloride of mercury which definitely worked although the inherent difficulty was that pigment cells exist under the horny cells of the epidermis so results were usually temporary.  Many resorted to sometimes quite drastic skin-peeling and the most popular agent was for centuries lemon juice which bleaches the skin, inducing peeling although those wanting faster results would later use a hydrogen peroxide solution which was applied immediately after the skin had been scrubbed with a strong alkali soap and ammonium water.  If a patient demanded it, dermatologists would sometimes use undiluted carbolic acid to induce a severe inflammation and consequent peeling but there was reluctance in the profession because even when used with the appropriate skill, it could cause scaring and certainly couldn't be used on sensitive skin.  For that reason, many preferred the less effective hydrogen peroxide, salicylic acid or resorcinol; the early experiments with electrolysis proved unsatisfactory.  Mercury compounds such as ammoniated mercury and bi-chloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) were the basis of many over-the-counter "anti-freckle" compounds, often combined with zinc salts or bismuth sub-nitrate and although marketed as "bleaching creams’", chemically they were really desquamating agents.  Remarkably, although restrictions began to be placed on the use of mercury in cosmetics as early as the 1940s, it wasn't until the late 1970s that in the West it was effectively banned for this purpose.  The preferred method of freckle removal is now laser treatment although the traditional view of dermatologists that freckles are a normal part of the human condition requiring no treatment is now more fashionable and there are many who fancy freckles.

Chocolate Freckles.

Freckles form on the skin because of exposure to sunlight, certain parts of the spectrum activating the melanocytes which stimulate an increase in melanin production, cause them to darken and appear more obvious.  Cases exist in the literature of people who spent their early life in extreme northern latitudes developing freckles only after moving south and thus greatly increasing their exposure to sunlight.  In some cases, these people have presented to physicians seeking treatment for a skin disorder which freckles are not.  Freckles are instead something of a by-product of the migration of early humans, as long as 1.8 million years ago, from Africa, north to the lands around the Mediterranean and later beyond.  It was natural selection which, well over 100,000 years ago, produced the gene variants associated with pigmentation, induced by the advantaged gained by a lighter skin when living in northern latitudes; one which can absorb enough ultra-violet (UV) light to permit the body to sustain a healthy production of vitamin D.