squame

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French esquame, from Latin squāma. Doublet of squama.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skweɪm/

Noun

squame (plural squames)

1. (obsolete) A scale (of metal, or on the eyes etc.).
   • Chaucer

     iron squames

2. (zoology) The scale, or exopodite, of an antenna of a crustacean.
3. (medicine) A flake of dead skin tissue.
   • 2011, Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 80:

     Squames begin life as normal cells in the lower layers of the epidermis but, as they travel towards the surface, they progressively lose all recognizable contents, becoming plates of mainly keratin protein, based on a progressive deposition of protein on the intermediate filaments of the cytoskeleton.

Anagrams

• masque

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French

Etymology

Learned alteration of Old French eschame, after its source, Latin squama.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwam/

Noun

squame f (plural squames)

1. (archaic or literary) scale

Further reading

• “squame”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Noun

squame f

1. plural of squama