Advocabulary: Hirsute is Not the Kind of Hair You Want
You know what’s not a good name for a hair salon?
Hirsute, which means hairy or shaggy and typically refers to body hair. Hirsutism is the medical condition of excessive growth of hair of normal or abnormal distribution, especially in women.
Above: Salma Hayek in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.
A related word (and a very common word on the GRE) is raze, which is exactly what a razor does. Raze can mean “shave or scrape off,” but isn’t only about hair: you can raze a building by demolishing it or leveling it to the ground.
Try this GRE Analogies problem:
RAZE : HIRSUTE ::
A. galvanize : hard
B. macerate : solid
C. vulcanize : placid
D. desiccate : arid
E. extirpate : homogeneous
The linking sentence is “To raze is to make less hirsute.” There are some attractive trap answers here: to galvanize is to make more hard, not less. To vulcanize is actually to make stronger, usually by making (rubber) more pliable. To desiccate is to make more arid (sort of — desiccate is used more for things like dried foods, whereas arid also means dry, but is used to refer more to climate). To extirpate is to exterminate, so the words in E are completely unrelated.
The answer is B. To macerate is to soften or separate into parts, and hence to make less solid.