brovo

Brovo is the eyebrow: the Reta Vortaro's arkoforma superokula hartufo, an arch-shaped tuft of hair above the eye. Two on a face, so it is usually plural.

One root, no seam. Brovo is brov- plus the noun ending, and there is nothing else in it. The reading that tempts a learner is br- plus ovo, an egg, which produces a memorable but entirely imaginary word. Nothing here is a prefix, a suffix, or a second root.

The facial vocabulary now sits nearly complete, and it is worth having the set in one place: okulo eye, frunto forehead, brovo eyebrow, palpebro eyelid, nazo nose, vango cheek, lipo lip. An eyelash is okulharo or, in the medical register, cilio.

The idiom to learn with it is sulkigi la brovojn, literally to wrinkle the brows: to frown, out of attention or doubt or worry. Zamenhof's own example is a girl saying viaj vortoj estas malrespektaj while doing it. Raising them instead, levi la brovojn, means the same thing in Esperanto as it does in English, which is surprise or polite disbelief.