"imbricate" - Word of the Day from the OED

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imbricate, a. (n.)

SECOND EDITION 1989

(mbrkt)  [ad. L. imbrict-us, pa. pple. of imbricre to form like a gutter-tile, to cover with rain-tiles, f. imbrex, imbric-em.] 

    1. Formed like a gutter-tile or pantile. Obs.

1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Imbricate, square and bent like a roof or gutter-Tile, which the Latines call Imbrex; also covered with such a Tile. 1661 LOVELL Hist. Anim. & Min Introd., The nailes are in all that have toes; but the ape's are imbricate [= Pliny, H.N. XI. xlv. 101 ungues imbricati].

    2. Covered with or composed of scales or scalelike parts overlapping like roof-tiles; e.g. said of the scaly covering of reptiles and fishes, of leaf-buds, the involucre of Compositæ, etc.

1656 [see 1]. 1760 J. LEE Introd. Bot. (1788) 25. 1794 MARTYN Rousseau's Bot. vi. 68 One of the most common forms also of the calyx in this class [Compound Flowers], is the imbricate or that which is made up of several rows of folioles, lying over each other like tiles on a roof. 1826 KIRBY & SP. Entomol. IV. 320 [Antennae] Imbricate, when the summit of each joint is incumbent upon the base of that which precedes it. 1830 LINDLEY Nat. Syst. Bot. Introd. 24 In Penæaceæ both valvate and imbricate æstivation exists.

    b. Of leaves, scales, etc.: Overlapping like tiles.

1796 P. RUSSELL Acc. Ind Serpents 7 (T.) Two rows..of larger scales, ovate and imbricate. 1852 DANA Crust. I. 483 Branchiæ..composed each of imbricate plates in two series.

    3. = IMBRICATED 4.

1890 Cent. Dict. s.v., An imbricate pattern.

    B. as n. A reptile, fish, or other animal covered with imbricated scales.

1862 DANA Man. Geol. vii. 277 The Devonian ganoids are of three kinds..Imbricates having the scales arranged like shingles.

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