“Scale”: The False Cognates

False cognates are pairs of words, from two different languages, where both words appear to be spelled and pronounced similarly, giving the impression they share the same meaning.  However, their meanings are not similar at all.  For example, as written elsewhere, in a case of linguistic convergent evolution, the English words “scale”, “scale”, and “scale” are all false cognates of each other. 

Example 1

“Scale” is a noun.  The plural noun is “scales”.  A “scale” refers to each of the small, thin horny or bony plates protecting the skin of fish and reptiles, typically overlapping one another.  It may also refer to a thick, dry flake of skin, or a rudimentary leaf, feather, or bract, or each of numerous microscopic structures covering the wings of butterflies and moths.  A “scale” may also be a flaky covering or deposit, a white deposit formed in a kettle, boiler, and so forth, by the evaporation of water containing lime.  It may also refer to a coating of oxide formed on heated metal. 

In such a case, “scale” can be a verb.  The 3^rd person present is “scales”; the past tense is “scaled”; the past participle is also “scaled”; and the gerund or present participle is “scaling”.  To “scale” is to remove scale or scales from something, or a surface. 

“Scale” originated from Middle English, a shortening of Old French “escale”, from the Germanic base of “scale”. 

Example 2

“Scale” is a noun.  The plural noun is “scales”; but if the noun is “pair of scales”, then the plural noun is “pairs of scales”.  A “scale” refers to an instrument for weighing, originally a simple balance, a pair of scales, but now usually a device with an electronic or other internal weighing mechanism. 

“Scale” originated from Middle English, in the sense of “drinking cup”, from Old Norse, “skál”, “bowl”, of Germanic origin, and related to Dutch, “schaal”; German, “Schale”; both meaning “bowl”. 

Example 3

“Scale” is a noun.  The plural noun is “scales”.  If, for example, the noun is “scale of notation”, then the plural noun is “scales of notation”.  A “scale” refers to a graduated range of values forming a standard system for measuring or grading something.  It may also refer to the full range of different levels of people or things, from lowest to highest, a series of marks at regular intervals in a line used in measuring something, a device having a series of marks at regular intervals for measuring, or a rule determining the distances between marks on a scale. 

A “scale” may also refer to the relative size or extent of something, or a ratio of size in a map, model, drawing, or plan.  In music, “scale” refers to an arrangement of the notes in any system of music in ascending or descending order of pitch, or the exercise of performing the notes of one or more scales as a form of practice by a singer or musician.  In mathematics, “scale” refers to a system of numerical notation in which the value of a digit depends upon its position in the number, successive positions representing successive powers of a fixed base.  In photography, “scale” refers to the range of exposures over which a photographic material will give an acceptable variation in density. 

In such a case, “scale” can be a verb.  The 3^rd person present is “scales”; the past tense is “scaled”; the past participle is also “scaled”; and the gerund or present participle is “scaling”.  To “scale” is to climb up or over something high and steep, and to represent in proportional dimensions; reduce or increase in size according to a common scale, such as of a quantity or property, variable according to a particular scale. 

“Scale” originated from late Middle English, from Latin “scala”, “ladder”; the verb via Old French, “escaler”, or medieval Latin, “scalare”, “climb”; from the base of Latin, “scandere”, “to climb”. 

English has three “scales”, from Old French, from Old German, and from Latin.  They are unrelated to each other, but came into modern English, sharing the same rules of grammar, giving us the same forms of the noun and verb.