Embrocation - imbrication

Do not confuse these two near-homophones -which may happen as a result of mis-hearing, mois-typing or a spellchecker. You are unlikely to come across them together in any normal academic context.

• The noun an embrocation (note the spelling, with an '-o-' in the second syllable) is mostly found in medical contexts. It means 'a liquid or ointment that is rubbed into the skin, mostly for muscular stiffness or pain'. (This is similar to a 'liniment.) In older times, the disorder being treated was not necessarily muscular: "The lotion with which any diseased part is washed or embrocated" (Johnson's Dictionary). 'To embrocate' is the related verb, defined by Johnson as "to rub any part diseased with medicinal liqueurs".
• An imbrication (with an '-i-' in the third syllable) is an overlapping of similar objects, as in a fish's scales, or the tiles on a roof. It is a term most seen in Biological Sciences and Mathematics, where the adjective imbricate and the participial adjective imbricated are used to describe such patterns. (Previously the adjective imbricate could mean 'formed like a roof tile', or "indented with concavities, bent and hollowed like a roof or gutter-tile" Johnson (J. is thinking of a pantile.). This closer to the original meaning in Latin: the word comes from imbrex, imbric-em, 'a roof tile with hollow moulding to form an overlap'.