The building blocks of English

Affixes

squam(o)-

A scale.

Latin squama, scale.

The adjective squamous can refer to something having scales (Squamata is a taxonomic order that includes the snakes and lizards), to a layer of tissue that consists of very thin flattened cells (as in squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer), or the flat portion of the temporal bone which forms part of the side of the skull. The adjective squamocolumnar refers to a junction between layers of stratified squamous cells and columnar cells in epithelial tissue; a squamule is a small scale.