shilling

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shilling, inherited from Old English scilling, also scylling,^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz,^[6][7][8] a common Germanic word.^[5] Its cognates are Old Frisian skilling, Old Saxon skilling, Old High German scilling (modern German Schilling), Middle Dutch scellinc (modern Dutch schelling), Old Norse skillingr (Swedish and Danish skilling) and Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍃 (skilliggs).^{[5][9][10][11]} The Germanic word was borrowed by the Romance languages: French escalin and Italian scellino.^[5][2] Its origin is unknown.^[8][7] Some etymologists derive it from a root meaning "to resound, ring", the root of shill;^[5][7][9] others from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, divide”), the root of shell and scale, so that the word first meant a division of a unit of weight or money,^[5][7][2] perhaps one of the pieces of fixed weight into which a gold or silver armlet was cut so that they could be used as money.^[5] Klein and Merriam-Webster connect it instead with shield,^[10][12] and Etymonline mentions a shield-like shape or a shield as the device on the coin.^[2] The ending may be the suffix -ling or the Germanic -ing that formed names of coins and fractional parts, as in farthing and penny.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A unit of account in Old English, worth a varying number of pence: the OED's first record is in the laws of Ine.^[5][2] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 900,^[13][9] and Bosworth–Toller notes that in Wessex a shilling was five pennies.^[4] In the 6th-century bilingual Gothic documents 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍃 (skilliggs) translates the Latin solidus.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the shilling was a money of account, not a coin, and its value differed from one part of the country to another.^[4][2] After the Norman Conquest it was fixed at twelve pence, twenty shillings making a pound,^[5][2][12] and it was abbreviated s., for Latin solidus.^[5] Old English also used it for a weight, a twentieth of a pound (obsolete by 1552), and to render the names of foreign coins: the Lindisfarne Gospels use it for the thirty pieces of silver in Matthew.^[5][14] The coin itself was first issued under Henry VII,^[5][2][12] in 1503 according to the OED;^[5] it was silver, later cupronickel,^[5][15] and went out of official use with decimal currency, not having been minted in Britain since 1970.^[5][15] From 1462 the word was used for the shilling of Scotland, Ireland and the American colonies,^[5] and in the 20th century it became the name of the currency of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.^[15][5] Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary (1891) that reckoning in shillings was still heard in rural New England.^[2] To take the shilling meant to enlist in the army,^[14] and in Scottish and northern dialect someone about ninepence to the shilling was half-witted;^[16] Australian, New Zealand and Irish slang says that someone not the full shilling is not very bright.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 900 – Old English scilling, a unit of account of several pence.^[9][5]
• before 1225 – shillinges, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[9]
• before 1300 – the plural shilling, unchanged, now informal.^[5]
• 1462 – a shilling of Scotland, Ireland or America.^[5]
• 1533 – a silver coin worth twelve pence, first issued in 1503.^[5]
• 1546 – in proverbial expressions.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A former British coin and monetary unit worth twelve pence, or one twentieth of a pound, in use until decimalization: The ticket cost two shillings.^[15][12][5]
2. The basic monetary unit of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, divided into 100 cents.^[15][5]
3. A former coin or unit of account of Scotland, Ireland or the American colonies, of varying value.^[12][15][5]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1552) A unit of weight, a twentieth of a pound.^[5][11]

Word family

• King's shilling

Related words

• schilling
• shill
• shield
• farthing
• penny
• solidus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com