ETYMOLOGY
from Latin hilum (little thing, trifle);
according to Festus, thought to have originally meant ‘that which adheres to a bean’;
hence, later used in anatomy (the depression or opening where ducts, vessels, etc. enter an organ) and in biology (a scar on a seed or spore created by detachment)
EXAMPLE
“…Now Solomon was a wise, and an understanding childe. How much more then should you take care of ignorant, knotty, illiterate, and unhewn Sailors, that have no more than a meer hilum of goodness in them?…”
From: Πελαγος or, An Improvement of the Sea
By Daniel Pell
PRONUNCIATION
HIGH-luhm
Lexicophilia 