sceat

English

Northumbrian sceat, circa 789–796

Alternative forms

• sceatt, sceatta

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English sceatt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃæt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt
• Homophone: shat

Noun

sceat (plural sceats)

1. (numismatics, historical) A small Anglo-Saxon coin, especially one made of silver; sometimes regarded as a weight (and thus a comparative measure of a coin's value).
   • 1840, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, Volume 2, Commissioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom, unnumbered page,

     In the Anglo-Saxon laws there is no passage from which the value of the ‘sceat’ can be ascertained with certainty, though from some places in the laws of Ethelbirht it would appear, that, in Kent at least, 20 sceats were equal to 1 scilling.

   • 1862, Eben William Robertson, Scotland Under Her Early Kings, Edmonston and Douglas, page 347:

     The Obolus and the Scruple appear to have been equally familiar to the Anglo-Saxons under the names of the older sceat and penny. The Kentishmen seem to have resembled the Franks in their coinage as well as in their Wergilds, for their scilling weighed 20 sceats; and as the scilling was only a corruption of the Roman sicilicus (the shekel), or quarter-ounce weight, the Kentish ounce must have contained 80 sceats or 40 pence; in other words it was the old Salic solidus of 40 scruples, often met with in later times under the name of mancus, or heavier ounce of 30 Carlovingian (or sterling), and 40 Merovingian pence, or scruples.

Translations

small Anglo-Saxon coin

• French: sceat f
• German: Sceatta f
• Italian: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• Cates, Stace, caste, cates, scate, taces

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *skautaz. Cognate with Old Frisian skat, Middle Dutch scoot (Dutch schoot), Old High German scōz (German Schoß), Old Norse skaut (Danish skød), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰 (skauta).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃæ͜ɑːt/

Noun

sċēat m

1. corner, angle, projection
   • The Seafarer, lines: 59-62

     Min modsefa || mid mereflode
     ofer hwæles eþel || hweorfeð wide,
     eorþan sceatas, || cymeð eft to me
     gifre ond grædig ...

     My spirit, amid sea-flood,
     over the whale's estate, wanders far
     [to] the corners of the Earth, then comes [back] to me
     wanting and unsatisfied ...

2. nook, area, region
3. lap, bosom
4. bay

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	sċēat	sċēatas
accusative	sċēat	sċēatas
genitive	sċēates	sċēata
dative	sċēate	sċēatum

Descendants

• English: Sheet