核心畫面

One way to hold this word: a surface made of small flat pieces that lie over each other, like tiles on a roof. Run your hand across it and you feel the edges. Every use of scaly comes back to that surface — first on a fish, then on anything else that breaks into overlapping pieces.

可以想成一個畫面:一個表面被一小片一小片又薄又平的東西蓋滿,一片壓著一片,像屋頂上的瓦。用手摸過去,摸得到那些邊。s更多收起可以想成一個畫面:一個表面被一小片一小片又薄又平的東西蓋滿,一片壓著一片,像屋頂上的瓦。用手摸過去,摸得到那些邊。scaly 的各種用法都回到這個表面。最早是魚身上的鱗,後來凡是裂成一片片、疊成一層層的東西,也都借用了這個畫面。

From the word’s history

By surface analysis, scale plus the ending -y, which means covered with or full of; recorded in Middle English as scali.

從構詞上看,scaly 就是 scale(鱗片)加上 -y(帶有…的、滿是…的),中古英語寫作 scali。所以這個字從一開始講的就是「身上帶著鱗片」,後來的用法都是從這個字面畫面延伸出去的。

Wiktionary entry for scaly (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:662291764): From Middle English scali, skaly. By surface analysis, scale + -y.

Two branches

被一片片硬片蓋住

這一組最貼近核心畫面:表面真的是由一片片疊起來的東西構成,你看得到、也摸得到。

adjective · B2

Covered with scales — the small, flat, hard pieces that lie over each other on the body of a fish, a snake, or a lizard.

有鱗的

皮膚乾到起屑

皮膚缺水的時候會裂成一小塊一小塊翹起來,遠看近摸都有點像那些疊起來的小片,所以同一個字被拿來描述這種皮膚。這是外形上的聯想,不是說皮膚真的長出鱗片。

adjective · B2

If skin is scaly, it is dry and rough, and small thin pieces of it come loose or flake off.

乾燥脫屑的