écaille
See also: écaillé
French
Etymology
From Middle French escaille, from Old French escaille (“scale”), 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”).Compare Italian scaglia. Doublet of écale.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /e.kaj/, /e.kɑj/
écaille (file)
Noun
écaille f (plural écailles)
- scale (of fish, reptile etc.)
- shell (of tortoise, oyster)
- tortoiseshell (manufacturing material)
Derived terms
- écaille de tortue
Further reading
- “écaille”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- caillée