Here's the skinny on "cutis": it's the root word of both "cutaneous" and "cuticle." "Cuticle" (the name of the dead part of skin around a fingernail) comes from "cuticula," the diminutive form of "cutis." You missed by the skin of your teeth if you chose C, "epidermis," another word having to do with skin. "Epidermis" refers to the thin insensitive outermost layer of the skin. (It covers sensitive inner "dermis," which is also called the "cutis.") Like "cutaneous," "epidermis" comes from Latin, but it traces back to Greek. "Epidermis" was formed from the prefix "epi-," meaning "besides, after," and "derma," the Greek word for skin.