Scale
Bill
from Merritt, Michigan, mused on the word scale, which can encompass diverse
meanings from relative size to the covering on a fish to a musical progression.
As with many words having multiple meanings, though the spelling is identical,
the origins may have absolutely nothing in common. Here’s how the Oxford English Dictionary covers the
word.
scale-1 [ON skál bowl]
·
a drinking
bowl
·
an apparatus
for weighing things
scale-2 [Ger. skaljā shell]
·
small thin
membranous or horny outgrowths on the skin of many fish and reptiles
·
a husk that
may be peeled off or detached in flakes
·
the tartar
that collects on teeth
·
a symbol of
physical or moral blindness (Acts ix.18)
·
the hard
deposit that forms in vessels used to boil water
scale-3 [L. scala
ladder]
·
a ladder,
especially one used to scale a wall in battle
·
a graduated
series of sounds into which an octave is divided
·
a
progression of steps measuring from lowest to highest
·
a graduated
table (e.g., a salary scale)
·
relative or
proportionate size
Obsolete meanings
included
· a hut
· a squadron or battalion
· the amount of timber standing or in cut logs
· a seaport town
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