shilling
English

1955 British shilling coin
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/
- Rhymes: -ɪlɪŋ
Audio (US) (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English sċilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz.
Noun
shilling (plural shillings)
- (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.
- The currency of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
- (US, historical) A currency in the United States, differing in value between states.
- (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
- (Britain, Ireland, Australia, East Africa): bob, generalise, gen, hog, Abraham's willing (archaic)
- (Australia): deener
Derived terms
Translations
former coin
currency
Further reading
Etymology 2
See shill.
Middle English
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