squama Latin · revision 33130

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=204–169 BC, Ennius}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈskʷaː.ma]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈskʷaː.ma]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''squāma''' ''f'' (genitive squāmae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan lists it beside [[m|la|squālus|t=filthy]] and its family, for which he finds no etymology, and thinks the sequence ⟨squ-⟩ points to a word that was not inherited.^(de Vaan 2008) Wiktionary calls a link with [[m|la|squālus]] probable, or suggests [[ine-pro|*(s)kewH-|t=to cover]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008) and the OLD's first citation is a line of Ennius' tragedies.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==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.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) It came to mean anything like a scale: Pliny the Elder has flakes of bark and a growth on the eye,^(OLD 2012) Celsus the flakes of copper oxide made by hammering hot metal,^(OLD 2012) and Virgil the metal plates of a scale corselet and the yellow bands on a queen bee.^(OLD 2012) In British Medieval Latin it is also a scaled fish and mail armour.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius, of scales.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of scaled animals.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a serpent's scales and of scale armour.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 14–37 AD – Celsus, of metal flakes.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|scale]] (of a fish, reptile and so on).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A scale-like object, a flake; a growth on the eye; a flake of metal oxide.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A metal plate of [[m|en|scale armour]].^(OLD 2012)^(DMLBS)

+ # A scale-like band on the abdomen of a bee.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[desquāmō]]

+ * [[squāmātim]]

+ * [[squāmātus]]

+ * [[squāmeus]]

+ * [[squāmifer]]

+ * [[squāmiger]]

+ * [[squāmōsus]]

+ * [[squāmula]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[squālus]]

+ * [[squālor]]

+ * [[en|squamous]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}