squama

Forms

squama f (plural squame)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian scama, Old Italian sciama and Old Italian isquama.^[2] A Tuscan variant is squamma.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin squāma (“scale”).^{[6][7][4][8][2]} The Latin word also gave Occitan escama, Catalan escama, Spanish escama, Portuguese escama and Romanian scamă (“fibre”).^[9][10][11] DEI calls it pan-Romance, though French écaille has taken its place in the north.^[12] It adds that the northeastern Venetian s'ciama may continue the diminutive squamula.^[12]

Nocentini and Zingarelli connect the Latin noun with squālus (“rough, unkempt”), the source of squallido.^[9][4] De Vaan finds no etymology and, because of the sequence ⟨squ⟩, thinks the group probably not inherited.^[13] Wiktionary mentions a possible source in Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the TLIO is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century, where the word means scaly skin.^[2] DELI's first record is Dante, before 1321, for a flake that comes away from the skin.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for the scales of fish and reptiles, for the body of a reptile, for the bristles of a boar or wild goat, for a crust shed from the skin, and figuratively for a veil that dims the perception of spiritual truth.^[2] It also named small plates of metal, as on armour.^[2][14]

The zoological sense is recorded in the 14th-century Ottimo commentary on Dante, and the botanical sense, a much reduced leaf, in Mattioli in 1563.^[6] Modern zoology distinguishes placoid, ganoid and cycloid scales, and anatomy uses the word for a flat part of a bone, such as the squama of the temporal bone.^[8][7][15]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the word.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a flake of skin.^[6]
• 14th century – The Ottimo commentary uses it for the scales of animals.^[6]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses squamoso.^[6]
• 1563 – Mattioli uses it in botany.^[6]
• Before 1574 – Vasari uses squammare, the verb squamare.^[6]
• 1600 – squamato is recorded, in Buonarroti the Younger.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) A scale: each of the small hard plates covering the body of many fish and reptiles: le squame lucide della trota.^{[7][3][16][4]}
2. (botany) A much reduced, scale-like leaf, such as one that wraps a bud.^{[7][16][4][5]}
3. (anatomy) A flat, thin part of a bone: squama temporale.^[7][3][4]
4. (medicine) A small flake of the outer skin shed through desquamazione.^[7][3][16]
5. (botany) The thin husk of the grains of some cereals.^[7][3]
6. A thin plate of metal or another material; a scaglia.^{[7][3][16][5]}

Word family

• squamoso
• squamare
• squamato
• squametta
• squamiforme

Related words

• squallido
• desquamare
• Latin squama

Usage notes

In everyday Italian the scales of fish are usually scaglie; zoologists reserve squama for reptiles and some mammals and birds.^[3][16][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 1090
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3608
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse