shilling

See also: Shilling and schilling

English

1955 British shilling coin

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪlɪŋ
  • (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English sċilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz.

Noun

shilling (plural shillings)

  1. (historical) A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries.
    The shilling was worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:
      A great bargain also had been [] the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
  2. The currency of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
  3. (US, historical) A currency in the United States, differing in value between states.
  4. (US, historical, New York and some other states) The Spanish real, formerly having the value of one eighth of a dollar.
Usage notes
Abbreviations
  • (in UK, etc): s. or s or / (solidus)
  • (in Kenya): Ksh; (in Somalia) So. Sh.; (in Tanzania) TSh; (in Uganda) UGS

In East Africa, the names of the currencies usually use the proper noun for the country, not its adjectival form: "Kenya shilling", "Tanzania shilling", etc. Amounts are written with a solidus, probably from the UK usage: "2/50" is 2 shillings, 50 cents (not pence); 30 shillings only is written "30/=".

Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Further reading

Etymology 2

See shill.

Verb

shilling

  1. present participle of shill

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃi.liŋ/

Noun

shilling m (plural shillings)

  1. shilling (old UK coin)

Middle English

Noun

shilling

  1. Alternative form of schilling
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