English

Noun

squame ‎(plural squames)

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

   Iron squames. — Chaucer.

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 teh cytoskeleton.

French

Etymology

Alteration of Old French eschame, after its source, Latin squama.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwam/

Noun

squame f ‎(plural squames)

1. (archaic or literary) scale

Italian

Noun

squame f

1. plural of squama