squama

Forms

squāma f (genitive squāmae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] De Vaan lists it beside squālus (“filthy”) and its family, for which he finds no etymology, and thinks the sequence ⟨squ-⟩ points to a word that was not inherited.^[4] Wiktionary calls a link with squālus probable, or suggests Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] and the OLD's first citation is a line of Ennius' tragedies.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the scale of a fish or reptile: Cicero speaks of animals covered with scales, and Virgil and Ovid use it of serpents.^[5][2] It came to mean anything like a scale: Pliny the Elder has flakes of bark and a growth on the eye,^[2] Celsus the flakes of copper oxide made by hammering hot metal,^[2] and Virgil the metal plates of a scale corselet and the yellow bands on a queen bee.^[2] In British Medieval Latin it is also a scaled fish and mail armour.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of scales.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of scaled animals.^[5][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a serpent's scales and of scale armour.^[2][5][3]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of metal flakes.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scale (of a fish, reptile and so on).^[2][5][1]
2. A scale-like object, a flake; a growth on the eye; a flake of metal oxide.^[2][1]
3. A metal plate of scale armour.^[2][6]
4. A scale-like band on the abdomen of a bee.^[2]

Word family

• desquāmō
• squāmātim
• squāmātus
• squāmeus
• squāmifer
• squāmiger
• squāmōsus
• squāmula

Related words

• squālus
• squālor
• English squamous

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press