esca

See also: ESCA, ésca, and -esca

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛskə/

Etymology 1

From Latin ēsca (“bait”).

Noun

esca (plural escae)

1. (ichthyology) The fleshy growth from an anglerfish's head that acts as a lure for its prey.
2. (phytopathology) A fungal disease afflicting grapes.

Synonyms

• (anglerfish growth): illicium
• (fungal disease): black measles

Translations

growth on anglerfish's head

• Finnish: onki (fi)

Etymology 2

From Galician escá, from Hispanic Late Latin scala (“bowl”) attested in Isidore of Seville, probably from Suevic, from Proto-Germanic *skēlō (“bowl”). Cognate with German Schale and Dutch schaal.

Noun

esca (plural escas)

1. (historical) A traditional Galician unit of dry measure, equivalent to about 6–9 L depending on the substance measured.
2. (historical) A kind of measuring cup once used for measuring escas of grain.

Coordinate terms

• (unit of dry volume): cuartillo (¹⁄₁₂ esca), cunca (¹⁄₆ esca), ferrado (2 escas), fanega (10 escas)

Anagrams

• ACEs, ASCE, Aces, CASE, Case, Ceas, SCEA, aces, aesc, case, æsc

Asturian

Alternative forms

• yesca

Etymology

From Latin ēsca.

Noun

esca f (plural esques)

1. tinder (dry plants used to light a fire)

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈɛs.kə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈəs.kə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈes.ka]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin ēsca.

Noun

esca f (plural esques)

1. amadou (substance derived from the hoof fungus)
2. tinder (dry plants used to light a fire)
3. (figurative) spur, impetus, stimulus

   Synonym: incentiu

4. bait (substance used in catching fish)

   Synonym: esquer

Derived terms

• bolet d’esca
• escar

Further reading

• “esca” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “esca” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Etymology 2

Verb

esca

1. inflection of escar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Galician

Alternative forms

• isca

Etymology

Circa 1300. From Old Galician-Portuguese, from Latin ēsca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeska̝/

Noun

esca f (plural escas)

1. tinder (dry plants used to light a fire)
   • c. 1300, R. Martínez López, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Publicacións de Archivum, page 220:

     y achou cõ aquel arco hum estormento, et seu esqueyro, et sua ysca, et seu pedernal em el

     there he found, together with that bow, a tinderbox, with its lighter, its tinder, and its flint inside it

2. bait

Derived terms

• chisqueiro
• esqueiro

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “ysca”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “ysca”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “esca”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “esca”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “esca”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Italian

Etymology 1

From Latin ēsca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈe.ska/
• Rhymes: -eska
• Hyphenation: é‧sca

Noun

esca f (plural esche)

1. (obsolete) (animal) food
2. (obsolete, uncommon, also figurative) food
3. bait, lure (anything used to catch animals)
4. (figurative) bait, lure (anything that allures or attracts)
5. (figurative) decoy
6. tinder

Derived terms

• adescare
• inescare
• innescare

 

Further reading

• esca in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.ska/
• Rhymes: -ɛska
• Hyphenation: è‧sca

Verb

esca

1. inflection of uscire:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• asce, case, seca

Latin

Alternative forms

• isca (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

For Proto-Italic *ēsskā, Proto-Indo-European *h₁ēd-s-keh₂, from *h₁ed- (“eat”), the root of edō (“eat”). Judging by Lithuanian ėskà (“food, fodder”), the long vowel is of PIE origin, but despite this often cited as an example of Lachmann's lengthening.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈeːs.ka/, [ˈeːs̠kä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈes.ka/, [ˈɛskä]

Noun

ēsca f (genitive ēscae); first declension

1. (collective) food

   Synonyms: cibus, alimentum, vīctus, cibāria

   1. an individual serving, a dish

      Synonyms: ferculum, epulum

2. (collective) fodder

   Synonym: pābulum

   1. (collective) bait
3. (collective) fuel, especially firewood

   Synonyms: māteria, nūtrīmentum

   1. (collective) kindling, tinder

      Synonyms: fōmentum, nūtrīmentum

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	ēsca	ēscae
genitive	ēscae	ēscārum
dative	ēscae	ēscīs
accusative	ēscam	ēscās
ablative	ēscā	ēscīs
vocative	ēsca	ēscae

• An archaic/dialectal form of the genitive singular, ēscās (for the classically usual ēscae) is cited by Priscian from Livius Andronicus.

Derived terms

• ēscō(r)
• ēscālis
• ēscārius
• ēscātilis
• ēscifer
• ēsculentus
• adēscō
• inēscō

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: eascã, iascã, yeascã, iasche
  • Romanian: iască
  • → Albanian: eshkë
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: esca
  • Sicilian: isca
  • → Greek: ίσκα (íska)
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: lescje
  • Lombard: lisca
  • Romansch: estga, escha
  • Venetan: esca, lésca
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: esche
    • French: esche, aiche, èche
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Aragonese: esca
  • Catalan: esca
  • Occitan: esca
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: esca, yesca
  • Leonese: hisca
  • Old Galician-Portuguese:
    • Galician: esca, isca
    • Portuguese: isca
  • Spanish: yesca
• Borrowings:
  • → English: esca
  • → Spanish: esca

References

• “ēsca” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “edō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

Further reading

• “esca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “esca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• esca in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• esca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ēsca. Compare the inherited doublet yesca.

Noun

esca f (plural escas)

1. (dated) bait (substance used in catching fish)

   Synonym: cebo

Related terms

• yesca

 

Further reading

• “esca”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28