squamoso

Forms

squamoso (feminine squamosa, masculine plural squamosi, feminine plural squamose)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian squamoxo, Old Italian scamuso and Old Italian isquamoso.^[2] Tuscan has squammoso.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin squāmōsus (“scaly”), from squāma (“scale”) with the suffix -ōsus.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The same Latin adjective lives on in Romanian scămos, Spanish escamoso and Portuguese escamoso.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis of the late 13th or early 14th century, in the sense “covered with scales”.^[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1334, GRADIT to before 1375, and DELI to Boccaccio, before 1375.^[7][5][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used it of a boar's stiff bristles, of a scalp that flakes, and of a dry, rough tongue.^[2] Later writers applied it to fish, snakes and dragons, and to sea monsters such as tritons.^[12]

The sciences then took it up: in botany it describes organs covered with scales, in dermatology skin lesions with flaking, and in comparative anatomy the osso squamoso, a bone at the side of the skull.^[3][4][7]

Timeline

• Late 13th or early 14th century – The Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis has the word.^[2]
• 1334 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[7]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses squamoso.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with scales, scaly: la coda squamosa del drago.^{[5][3][13][14]}
2. (botany) Of a plant organ: bearing or covered with scales, such as a bulb.^[5][3][4]
3. (medicine) Of skin or a lesion: scaly, marked by flaking: una dermatite squamosa.^[5][3][4]

Noun

1. (anatomy, zoology) The squamosal bone, at the side of the skull of vertebrates.^[5][7][4]

Related words

• squama
• Latin squāmōsus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 1091
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli