An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Schale

by Friedrich Kluge

Schale, f., ‘shell, peel, scale, dish,’ from MidHG. schū̆l, schū̆le, OHG. scū̆la, f., ‘husk of fruit, egg-shell, &c., drinking cup’ (hence Fr. écale, ‘egg-shell, nut-shell’). It is questionable whether the two different senses are evolved from the same word. It is at all events probable that one of the meanings was connected with a form containing ă (in the sense of ‘husk’), the other with a form containing â, just as North Fris. distinguishes skal (orig. ă), ‘‘scale of animals,’ &c., from skeel (orig. â, ê), ‘bowl.’ Comp. OSax. scâla, f., ‘drinking cup,’ AS. sčeălu, ‘husk,’ E. shale and (under OIc. influence?) scale, OIc. skál, f., ‘drinking cup, scale (of a balance).’ Akin to Goth. skalja, f., ‘tile’ (lit. perhaps ‘shingle, similar to a scale’), OIc. skel, f., AS. sčyll, f., E. shell, Du. schel, f., ‘shell, husk.’ The Goth. and Teut. form skalja passed into Rom.; comp. Ital. scalgia, Fr. écaille, ‘scale, shell, crust.’ The Teut. cognates are usually connected with an Aryan root skel, ‘to split’; comp. Schelle, as well as Lith. skélti, ‘to split,’ OSlov. skolĭka, ‘mussel, shell-fish,’ Russ. skala, ‘crust.’—