scapula n.

skin disease characterized by eruptions and inflammation, c. 1400, "the itch; scabby skin generally," from Latin scabies "mange, itch, roughness," from scabere "to scratch, scrape" (from PIE root *(s)kep-, a base forming words meaning "to cut, scrape, hack," source also of Gothic scaban, Old English sceafan "to scrape, shave;" Greek skaptein "to dig;" Old Church Slavonic skobli "scraper;" Lithuanian skabus "sharp," skabėti "to cut;" Lettish skabrs "splintery, sharp").

Modern medical use in reference to a contagious skin disease due to a parasitic mite is by 1814. The older name for a skin condition or disease was simply scab. Scabbed "afflicted with scabies or mange" is by c. 1300. Related: Scabious.

1680s, "pertaining to the scapula," from Modern Latin scapularis, from Latin scapula "shoulder" (see scapula).

The noun (late 15c.) in reference to a short cloak for the shoulders prescribed for certain monks, is from Medieval Latin scapulare, from scapula. It was attested in Old English in the Medieval Latin form, and the usual Middle English form was scapulary. Related: Scapulary.

divination by means of the cracks in a shoulder-blade put into a fire, 1871, from combining form of scapula + -mancy "divination by means of." Related: Scapulimantic.

With haruspication may be classed the art of divining by bones, as where North American Indians would put in the fire a certain flat bone of a porcupine, and judge from its colour if the porcupine-hunt would be successful. The principal art of this kind is divination by a shoulder-blade, technically called scapulimancy or omoplatoscopy. This is especially found in vogue in Tartary, where it is ancient, and whence it may have spread into all other countries where we hear of it. [Edward B. Tylor, "Primitive Culture," 1871]