squama

Borrowed from Latin squāma (“scale”). Doublet of squame.

squama (plural squamae or squamas)

1. (medicine) A scale cast off from the skin; a thin dry shred of epithelium.
2. (botany) The bract of a deciduous spike.
3. (botany) Any scaly bracted leaf.
4. (entomology) A calypter.

• squamation

• squamous

• “squama”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskwa.ma/
• Rhymes: -ama
• Hyphenation: squà‧ma

From Latin squāma.

squama f (plural squame)

1. (zoology) scale (keratin piece covering the skin of reptiles and fishes)

   Synonym: scaglia

2. (anatomy) squama

• squamare
• squamoso

Inflected form of the verb squamare.

squama

1. inflection of squamare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Probably related to squālus (“filthy, foul”) or possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈskʷaː.ma/, [ˈs̠kʷäːmä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈskwa.ma/, [ˈskwäːmä]

squāma f (genitive squāmae); first declension

1. scale (of a fish or reptile)
2. (by extension) flake; any item shaped like a scale

First-declension noun.

• squāmātus
• squāmeus
• squāmifer / squāmiger
• squāmōsus
• squāmula

• “squama”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “squama”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• squama in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.