escudo

Forms

escudo m (plural escudos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escudo, inherited from Latin scūtum (“shield”).^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese escudo, Galician escudo, Catalan escut, Occitan escut, French écu, Italian scudo and Romanian scut.^[4][5][1] Catalan has the word from a charter of Lleida of 1167.^[6]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Italic *skoito- and Proto-Indo-European *skoi-to- (“piece of wood, sheath, shield”), with cognates in Celtic, Baltic and Slavic.^[7] Wiktionary names Old Irish scíath (“shield”) and Russian щит (ščit, “shield”) among them.^[1] It traces the root to *skey- (“to cut, split”), and mentions another theory from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”), which the Spanish Wiktionary prefers.^[1][8] Covarrubias, Bénaben and the DHLF compare Ancient Greek σκῦτος (skûtos, “leather, hide”), and Covarrubias explains that shields were covered with leather.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has the shield carried on the arm: Enbraçan los escudos delant los coraçones “they clasp their shields before their hearts”.^[13][2][14] The DCECH notes that the word is frequent in every period.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades explains the heraldic sense, the shield-shaped field with a family's arms, by the soldiers' custom of painting their deeds on their shields, and records the coin: called escudo because it bore the king's arms, in Spain a gold coin worth half a doubloon, with silver and copper escudos as units of account in Castile and León.^[15][16] Spanish documents of the Americas count sums in escudos from 1575.^[17] The Academy's 1884 dictionary also lists the escutcheon of a lock, the small plate through which the key enters.^[18]

For the currency of Portugal (1911–2002) and of Cape Verde Spanish took the Portuguese word escudo; the DHLE records the first in a Madrid newspaper of 1911, and the Academy added it in 1925.^[19] Figurative and technical senses include protection or defence in general, a person or thing used as a shield (escudo humano), the armour plate of a gun, the transom of a ship, and a tunnelling shield.^[3][20] In Honduras and Costa Rica escudo is the side of a coin with the national arms, the “tails” of a coin toss.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses escudo for the shield.^[13][2]
• 1167 – Catalan escut in a charter of Lleida.^[6]
• 1254 – the Fuero Juzgo lists shields among defensive arms.^[22]
• 1495 – Nebrija translates it scutum and clypeus.^[23]
• 1554 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias compares the Greek word for “leather”.^[9]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the weapon, the coat of arms and the coin.^[15]
• 1911 – first record of the Portuguese currency in a Spanish newspaper.^[19]
• 1925 – the Academy's dictionary first records the Portuguese currency.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shield: a defensive arm carried on the arm to protect the body from blows and missiles.^[3][20][1]
2. (heraldry) A coat of arms or escutcheon: the shield-shaped field showing the arms of a state, a town, a family or a club; also escudo de armas: El escudo del pueblo lleva un castillo y un río.^[3][20][1]
3. The steel plate protecting a piece of artillery.^[3]
4. The escutcheon of a lock: a small metal plate round the keyhole that guides the key.^[3][18]
5. (figurative) Protection, defence; a person or thing used as a shield: escudo humano.^[3][20]
6. (numismatics) The escudo: the currency of Portugal until the euro, and of Cape Verde; also an old coin of various countries.^[3][19][15]
7. (nautical) The transom of a ship's stern; the board forming the back of the stern seat of a boat.^[3]
8. (engineering) A tunnelling machine that prevents falls of earth.^[3]

Word family

• escudero
• escudar
• escudillo

Related words

• escutiforme
• Latin scūtum
• French écu
• Italian scudo

Usage notes

In Costa Rica the side of a coin with the arms is called la escudo, in the feminine.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 714
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. escudo
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6001
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. scutum
6. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 570
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. scūtum
8. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 774
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. escudo
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. écu
12. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. σκῦτος
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. escudo
14. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 725
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 578
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. escudo
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. escudo
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 453
19. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. escudo
20. ^ a b c d Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. escudo
21. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. escudo
22. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. escudo
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 349