disassembly_rsn | learning a new word: squamous, rugose, ochre

No, I'm still reading The Silent Tower, not H. P. Lovecraft. The characters were surprised too.

(And yes, I've *encountered* the words before, or that last sentence wouldn't exist, but I realized I couldn't define them adequately, so here they are.)

squamous - scaly or scalelike (Third meaning exists but isn't relevant here.)

And from the examples in the dictionary, I see why I was associating this one with cancer cells; it's a word used in describing the shapes of various cells of the body that have scalelike shapes.

rugose - having many ridges or wrinkles; creased or wrinkled [from The American Heritage Dictionary]

This one is sometimes used as a technical term in botany but has the same meaning as that given above when it is so used.

ochre - I knew this was a mineral used in pigments but had forgotten what colour(s) it corresponds to; in this case, "a moderate orange yellow, from moderate or deep orange to moderate or strong yellow".