Light skin

Light Skin

Light skin (pronunciation: /laɪt skɪn/) is a naturally occurring human skin color, which has a lesser amount of the pigment melanin resulting in a lighter coloration. The opposite of light skin is dark skin.

Etymology

The term "light skin" is derived from the Old English "leoht", meaning "bright", and the Old Norse "skinn", meaning "hide".

Related Terms

• Melanin: The pigment that gives human skin, hair, and eyes their color. Dark-skinned people have more melanin in their skin than light-skinned people.
• Pigmentation: The coloring of a person's skin. In humans, it is determined by the amount of melanin present.
• Skin color: The natural coloration of the skin, primarily determined by the amount and type of melanin.
• Albinism: A group of inherited disorders characterized by little or no melanin production, often resulting in light skin, hair, and eyes.
• Vitiligo: A long-term skin condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment.
• Hyperpigmentation: A common, usually harmless condition in which patches of skin become darker in color than the normal surrounding skin.
• Hypopigmentation: The loss of skin color. It is caused by melanocyte or melanin depletion, or a decrease in the amino acid tyrosine, which is used by melanocytes to make melanin.

External links

• Medical encyclopedia article on Light skin
• Wikipedia's article - Light skin

This WikiMD dictionary article is a stub. You can help make it a full article.

---

Languages: - East Asian 中文, 日本, 한국어, South Asian हिन्दी, Urdu, বাংলা, తెలుగు, தமிழ், ಕನ್ನಡ,
Southeast Asian Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, မြန်မာဘာသာ, European español, Deutsch, français, русский, português do Brasil, Italian, polski