escaille

Middle French

Alternative forms

• eschaille, esquaille, escalle

Etymology

From Old French escaille.

Noun

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

• French: écaille

Old French

Alternative forms

• eschaille, escalle

Etymology

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

escaille oblique singular, f (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

• Middle French: escaille, eschaille, esquaille, escalle
  • French: écaille
• → Middle English: shelle, schelle, scele (“vessel, dish, drinking vessel”)