scutum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈskuː.tũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈskuː.tum]^[1]

Forms

scūtum n (genitive scūtī); second declension^[1] Turpilius has a masculine scutus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *skoito- (“shield”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skoi-to- (“piece of wood, sheath, shield”), a derivative of the root *skei-, which de Vaan takes as a shorter form of Proto-Indo-European *skid- (“to split”), the root of scindō.^[4][1][5] Cognate with Old Irish scíath, Welsh ysgwyd and Breton skoed “shield”, Old Prussian staytan (“shield”), Lithuanian skiẽtas (“reed of a loom”), Old Church Slavonic щитъ (štitŭ, “shield”), Russian щит (ščit), Polish szczyt (“top, summit”), Old English scēað (“sheath”), Old High German sceida (“sheath”) and Old Norse skíð (“billet, snow-shoe”).^[4][1]

Wiktionary notes an alternative derivation from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”),^[1] which is the comparison the OLD makes with Sanskrit “covers” and with obscūrus.^[2] Lewis and Short, Georges and Gaffiot derive it from Ancient Greek σκῦτος (skûtos, “leather, hide”), as a shield covered in hide, an explanation the modern etymologies do not follow.^[3][6][7] Isidore of Seville explained it from excutere “to shake off”, because it shakes off blows.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[4][2] who says that soldiers are allowed to throw away their shields and run from the enemy.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was properly the large oblong shield of the Roman heavy infantry, made of boards glued together and covered with linen and hide, as against the round metal clipeus, and Livy records that the army took up the scutum in place of the clipeus when soldiers began to receive pay.^[3][6] Caesar mentions shields made of bark or wickerwork, and to throw away one's shield was the greatest disgrace.^[3] Petronius has the proverb per scutum per ocream, “by shield and by greave”, by every means, and Florus reports that Fabius was called the shield of the empire.^[2]

In the Middle Ages it named the unit formed by a knight with his retainers, a knight's fee, military service in the host, and the scutum bellicum, the ranks of the feudal hierarchy in Germany.^[9][5] It also came to mean a coat of arms and a shield-shaped diagram,^[10] and a coin bearing a shield, whence French écu, Italian scudo and Spanish and Portuguese escudo.^[1][11] English borrowed those coin names, and in 1687 Hevelius named the constellation Scutum after the shield of John Sobieski.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of throwing away one's shield in flight.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes Gallic shields of bark and wicker.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively for a defence.^[7][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy records the change from clipeus to scutum.^[3][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the proverb per scutum per ocream.^[2][5]
• c. 120 AD – Florus calls Fabius the shield of the empire.^[2][5]
• 822/823 – Niermeyer's earliest medieval citation, for a feudal unit.^[9][5]
• 1640s – English borrows Italian scudo, a coin, from the medieval Latin sense.^[11]
• 1687 – Hevelius names the constellation English Scutum.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The oblong wooden shield of the Roman heavy infantry; any shield.^[2][3]
2. (by metonymy) Shield-bearing soldiers.^[1]
3. (figurative) A defence, a protection.^[2][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A knight with his retainers as a military unit; a knight's fee; feudal military service.^[9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A coat of arms; a shield-shaped diagram.^[10]
6. (Medieval Latin) A coin bearing a shield.^[1][5]

Word family

• scūtārius
• scūtātus
• scūtulum
• scūtellum
• scūtāle

Related words

• scūtāneus
• scūtigerulus
• scindō
• English escutcheon
• English escudo
• English scudo

Usage notes

Döderlein and Lewis and Short set the scutum, the large body-covering shield, against the round clipeus and the small parma of cavalry, and Vegetius makes the same distinction.^[12][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper