A thin, flat piece of material such as wood, asphalt, or slate used to cover roofs or walls. 'Shingles' (plural) can also refer to a painful skin disease caused by the chickenpox virus becoming active again.
For the roofing sense, from Middle English 'schingel', from Late Latin 'scindula', a variant of 'scandula' meaning 'roof tile', related to 'scindere' (to split). The disease name comes from Latin 'cingulus' meaning 'girdle', because the rash often wraps around the body.
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