scut

Forms

scut n (plural scuturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scūtum (“shield”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Its Romance cognates include Logudorese iskudu, Catalan escut, French écu, Spanish escudo and Portuguese escudo; Italian scudo came from Occitan escut.^[2][7] Philippide compared Albanian skjut.^[2] De Vaan reconstructs the Latin word as Proto-Indo-European *skoi-to- (“piece of wood, sheath, shield”), perhaps from the root of scindō (“to split”), with Celtic and Slavic cognates.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century: „Prinde arma și scutul și scoală în agiutoriul mieu” “take hold of the weapon and the shield and rise up to help me” (Psalm 34:2).^[6][4] Tiktin also cites a Slavonic–Romanian document of about 1512.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The shield of ancient and medieval warriors is the first sense; from it came the figurative “protection, defence”, as in sub scutul legii “under the protection of the law”.^[6][5][9] It was used for the field of a coat of arms, and in the old language for the guard of a sword.^[4][5] Besides the plural scuturi, old texts have scute and scuture, the Bible of 1688 has scutur, and Heliade wrote scud.^[3][6][4]

Modern technical senses include a welder's mask, the moving shield used to dig mine galleries and tunnels, the hard covering of some animals, and in geology a wide area where the old crystalline base of a platform comes to the surface.^[5][4] The press of the 2000s used scut antirachetă, after English anti-missile shield, and scut uman “human shield”.^[10]

Romanian formed the verb scuti “to protect, to exempt” from the noun, rather than taking it from Slavic as Candrea proposed;^[11] scutelnic (a peasant exempt from taxes) is formed on its derivative scuteală, and Miklosich's link with Slavonic skotŭ is mistaken.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – scutul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 34:2), the first record.^[6][4]
• c. 1512 – a record in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[3]
• 1570 – scut in Coresi's psalter.^[11]
• 1649 – scut glosses Slavonic ščitŭ “shield” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – the plural scutur in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shield: a defensive weapon of metal, wood or leather carried by ancient and medieval warriors.^[5][4]
2. (rare) A coat of arms in the shape of a shield.^[5][4]
3. (figurative) protection, defence, support.^[5][4]
4. (technical) A protective mask or screen used by welders.^[5][4]
5. (mining) A movable metal or wooden structure that supports the walls and roof of a gallery or tunnel being dug.^[5][4]
6. (geology) A wide area of a platform where its old crystalline base comes to the surface.^[5][4]
7. (zoology) The hard chitinous covering of some animals.^[5][4]

Word family

• scutar
• scutaș
• scuti
• scuteală
• scutelnic
• scutire
• scutitor
• scutier

Related words

• ecuson
• Latin scūtum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. scut
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scut
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 834
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 996
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scut
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7759
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 579
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. scut
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 17:3
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. scut