learning a new word: squamous, rugose, ochre

[disassembly_rsn]

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".