squamous

English edit

WOTD – 20 September 2010

From Middle English squamous, from Latin squāmōsus, from squāma (“scale(of a fish or reptile)”).

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).
Coordinate terms: cuboidal, columnar