squammy
Pronunciation: /ˈskweɪm.mi/
The English word “squammy” has 2 meanings listed here.
adjective
- Synonym of squamous (“Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.”).
- trashy; classless; unrefined; crass; uncultured; vulgar; uncouth (lacking refinement)
Etymology
From squamous + -y, where -ous was elided to extract the root. The reduplicated ⟨m⟩ is akin to runny, brimmy, etc. The Philippine slang sense is a semantic loan from Tagalog iskuwater, itself from Philippine English squatter (“poor vagrant; illegal informal settler”) due to resemblance of the first syllable. Compare Tagalog iskuwami.
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More English words
- squamiferous
- squamiform
- squamigerous
- Squamish
- squamoadenocarcinoma
- squamocellular
- squamocolumnar
- squamodisc
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.