scute

English

Borrowed from Latin scutum (“shield”). Compare scutum, escudo, scudo, and écu.

scute (plural scutes)

(zoology) A horny, chitinous, or bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle or the skin of crocodiles.
- 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 71:
  Then one afternoon, as he's stripping the scutes and hide from a shortnose sturgeon, an idea hits him.
(genetics) A proneural gene, often associated with achaete, that is required for the formation of many larval and adult sense organs
(obsolete) A small shield.
- a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Here after Foloweth a Lytell Boke, whiche hath to Name Why Come Ye Nat to Courte? […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume II, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 32:
  But yet they ouer shote vs
  Wyth crownes and wyth scutus;
  With scutis and crownes of gold
  I drede we are bought and solde; […]
(historical) An old French gold coin.

plate or scale