squamous
English
WOTD – 20 September 2010
Etymology
From Middle English squamous, from Latin squāmōsus, from squāma (“scale(of a fish or reptile)”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
squamous (comparative more squamous, superlative most squamous)
- Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.
- Synonyms: squamose, squamulose; see also Thesaurus:scaly
- Antonyms: esquamulose, scaleless
- 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 180:
- In the squamous heads of Scabius, Knapweed, and the elegant Jacea Pinea, and in the Scaly composure of the Oak-Rose, which some years most aboundeth.
- 1933, H. P. Lovecraft, Hazel Heald, Out of the Aeons:
- I might call it gigantic - tentacled - proboscidian - octopus-eyed - semi-amorphous - plastic - partly squamous and partly rugose - ugh!
- 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 133:
- We spread the papers on the least squamous section of the floor and lay down; the smell was not so bad at ground level.
- 2001, Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archive, trade paperback 2006 edition, page 66:
- (And we'll never find out whether the last thought to pass through the mind of the captain of the Thresher was, "It's squamous and rugose," or simply, "It's squamous!")
- (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the squamosal bone; squamosal
- (microanatomy) Of or pertaining to an epithelium with has cells that are wider than their height (flat and scale-like).
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
scaly
|
Middle English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈskwaːmus/
Descendants
- English: squamous
References
- “squāmǒus, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
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