An implicit note of vulgar Latin in Isidore of Seville: scabies quasi squamies (Etym. 4, 8, 10)

Abstract

According to Isidore of Seville (Etym. 4, 8, 10), the disease called scabies is a skin peeling (squamatio). With this real detail in mind, he explains the name scabies relating it to squamies, a word that seems invented by Isidore himself. The etymology proposed in this passage (scabies < squamies < squamatio) is based on the confussion between the consonants b and m in vulgar Latin, i.e., on the possibility of pronouncing scamies (written squamies) instead of scabies. Squamies is not an independent and autonomous name, but only a vulgar pronunciation of scabies employed by Isidore to give an etymology impossible to be reached any other way.