wart

wart n.

A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an otherwise clean design. Something conspicuous for localized ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule. For example, in some versions of csh(1), single quotes literalize every character inside them except !. In ANSI C, the ?? syntax used for obtaining ASCII characters in a foreign environment is a wart. See also miswart.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Super Mario Brothers 2's story begins when Wart comes to the dreamworld of Subcon and enslaves its native population inside a vase. After plugging the vase with a cork, he sets loose a horde of monsters upon the land and promptly takes up residence in a castle in the sky. Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool track him down in World 7, venture through his castle, and toss waves of turnips into his mouth, thus killing him. His main mode of attack is to blow bubbles at those who oppose him. Hmm, it occurs to me that Wart is not the badass that other Nintendo villains try to be.

At the end of Super Mario Brothers 2 Wart turned grey and died, freeing the land of Subcon from his oppression. However whenever the game is ported to a new platform he is reborn to fight another day. Look for him in Super Mario All-Stars, BS Super Mario USA, and Super Mario Advance. In fact, in BS Mario USA Mario is sent to Wart's chamber if he goes down a vase while in Subspace. Also look for him in the Super Mario Brothers comics where his sole appearance was as a shifty mattress salesman.

If you're looking for Wart outside of Super Mario Brothers 2, check out The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and its DX version where he appears as Mamu, the frog master of soul singing. He teaches Link the toe-tapping song of life for a mere 300 rupees, then he goes on a concert tour. Link later uses the song to revive the flying rooster.

Presumeably Wart/Mamu is still on his concert tour, as he hasn't been seen since his Zelda cameo.

Wart (?), n. [OE. werte, AS. wearte; akin to D. wrat, G. warze, OHG. warza, Icel. varta, Sw. v�x86;rta, Dan. vorte; perh. orig., a growth, and akin to E. wort; or cf. L. verruca wart.]

1. Med.

A small, usually hard, tumor on the skin formed by enlargement of its vascular papillae, and thickening of the epidermis which covers them.

2.

An excrescence or protuberance more or less resembling a true wart; specifically Bot., a glandular excrescence or hardened protuberance on plants.

Fig wart, Moist wart Med., a soft, bright red, pointed or tufted tumor found about the genitals, often massed into groups of large size. It is a variety of condyloma. Called also pointed wart, venereal wart. L. A. Duhring. -- Wart cress Bot., the swine's cress. See under Swine. -- Wart snake Zool., any one of several species of East Indian colubrine snakes of the genus Acrochordus, having the body covered with wartlike tubercles or spinose scales, and lacking cephalic plates and ventral scutes. -- Wart spurge Bot., a kind of wartwort (Euphorbia Helioscopia).

© Webster 1913.