escudo

Forms

escudo m (plural escudos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scūtum (“shield”), written Old Galician-Portuguese escudo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician escudo, Spanish escudo, Catalan escut, Occitan escut, French écu and Romanian scut; Italian scudo was taken from Occitan, according to the REW.^[4][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from *skoito-, from *skoi-to- (“piece of wood, sheath, shield”), and compares Old Irish scíath (“shield”) and Russian щит (ščit, “shield”).^[5] Wiktionary connects it with *skey- (“to cut, split”), and mentions an alternative from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”).^[1] Vieira (1871–1874) and Figueiredo (1899) linked it with Ancient Greek σκῦτος (skûtos, “leather”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 974 has the plural scudos.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese the Crónica Troiana uses escudo for the shield and figuratively for a protector: one man was held por escudo de sua liñagen “as the shield of his lineage”.^[8] A satirical song of Afonso X tells of someone who fez pintar escudo “had a shield painted”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The coats of arms painted on shields gave the heraldic sense, which Morais (1789) describes as the piece bearing a family's arms over the doorways of houses.^[9] Viterbo records escudo as a gold coin struck by King Duarte, worth 90 réis, that King Manuel had withdrawn because its alloy made it unwelcome, above all abroad.^[10] The coin was named after the Portuguese shield stamped on it.^[3][1] The escudo was later the currency of Portugal until the euro replaced it, and it is still that of Cape Verde.^[11][2]

Figueiredo (1899) also lists the pan of a scale and the bud cut for grafting.^[7] In geology and zoology the word names a shield of ancient rock and the horny plates of an animal's body, such as those of a turtle's shell.^[2] English took escudo, from Spanish or Portuguese, as the name of the coin in 1821.^[12]

Timeline

• 974 – scudos in a Latin charter.^[2]
• 13th century – first record of escudo in Galician-Portuguese.^[2][8]
• 1390–1437 – the Horto do Esposo has escudo, its first occurrence in the CTA corpus.^[13]
• 15th century – a document of Paderne names the gold escudo of King Duarte.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary renders escudo by Latin clypeus.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais describes the shield and the heraldic sense.^[9]
• 1821 – English takes escudo from Spanish or Portuguese as the name of a coin.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shield, a defensive weapon held on the arm to protect the body: Os soldados ergueram os escudos.^[2][11][1]
2. Anything that protects against an attack or a danger.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) protection, support.^[2][11]
4. (heraldry) The escutcheon on which a nation's, a town's or a family's arms are shown; brasão.^[2][11][1]
5. The escudo, the currency of Cape Verde and formerly of Portugal, divided into 100 centavos.^[2][11][1]
6. (geology) A shield, a large area of ancient rock at the core of a continent.^[2]
7. (zoology) A bony or horny plate covering the body of an animal, a scute.^[2][11]
8. The pan of a pair of scales.^[11][16]
9. (botany) A piece of bark with a bud, cut for grafting.^[16][7]

Word family

• escudar
• escudete

Related words

• escudeiro
• Latin scūtum
• Galician escudo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escudo
3. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escudo
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7759
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 283
7. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. s.v. escudo
8. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. escudo
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 37
10. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 414
11. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. escudo
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. escudo
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escudo
15. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. escudo
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escudo