English
shilling
Shilling may come from Middle English schilling ‘a shilling or other silver coin, the value of…’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schilling‘a shilling or other silver coin, the value of that coin’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1909shilling
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schilling‘a shilling or other silver coin, the value of that coin’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1909shilling
Earliest quotation: 1909, United States Bureau of the Mint, Annual Report of the Director of the Mint: “The smaller silver coins of Europe, such as the…”
Formed from skill + -ing
Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to split’
Proto-Germanic *skilją ‘separation’
Old Norse skil ‘a distinction’
Middle English skill
English skill
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- ‘to cut, separate’
half, skill, shell, shield, skull, shale, halter, shoal, halve, shelve, hapa, 13 more
through Proto-Germanic *skillingaz ‘shilling (coin)’
Today it means
noun A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English schilling / shilling