escaille

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Middle French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old French escaille.

Noun

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escaille f (plural escailles)

  1. scale (flat, hard part of an outer coating)
    • Michel de Montaigne, Essais (Livre II), edition P. Villey et Saulnier, 1595
      là où toutes les autres creatures, nature les a revestuës de coquilles, de gousses, d’escorse, de poil, de laine, de pointes, de cuir, de bourre, de plume, d’escaille, de toison, et de soye selon le besoin de leur estre
      While all other creatures, natures has adorned them with shells, cloves, bark, fur, wool, spines, leather, hair, feathers, scales, fleeces or silk depending on what their being needs
  2. ring or plate of armor
    • Michel de Montaigne, Essais (Livre II), edition P. Villey et Saulnier, 1595
      ce sont les escailles, dequoy nos ancestres avoient fort accoustumé de se servir
      These are the armored plates our ancestors had the strong habit of using

Descendants

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  • French: écaille

Old French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Frankish *skallija (scale, shell), from Proto-Germanic *skaljō (scale, shell, husk) ( > English shell), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (to cut, part, sunder, split, divide). Doublet of escale.

Noun

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escaille oblique singularf (oblique plural escailles, nominative singular escaille, nominative plural escailles)

  1. scale (flat, hard part of an outer coating)
  2. ring or plate of armor

Descendants

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