shild

English

Noun

shild (plural shildren)

1. (rare, possibly obsolete) Alternative form of child representing German- or French-accented speech.
   • 1888, Charles Follen Adams, Dialect Ballads, page 60:

     "Und Shonny Schwartz' barents vas poorer as be" — Oh, dhose shildren, dhose shildren, dhey boddher mine life ! — But shtop shust a leedle. If Katrine, mine vife, […]

   • 2001, J. Douglas Canfield, Maja-Lisa von Sneidern, The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama, Broadview Press (→ISBN), page 960, quoting some edition of John Lacy's The Old Troop: Or, Monsieur Raggou (originally from 1672):

     RAGGOU. For oughta me see, dis shild be your shild.

     CAPTAIN. How prove you that, sir?

     RAGGOU. Begar, she say de shild belong to de troop, and you say de troop belong to you; derefore, de shild is your shild, begar. […]

     RAGGOU. […] Madam Dol, before my Capitain, if your shild be born wid never a shart, den it by my shild, for me have had no shart dis forty week.

Anagrams

• Hilds

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English sċyld (“guilt, sin, crime, offence, fault, debt, due, obligation, liability”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots sculd (“debt”), North Frisian schild (“debt, guilt, fault”), West Frisian skuld (“debt, guilt, fault”), Dutch schuld (“debt, fault, guilt”), German Schuld (“debt, guilt, fault”), Swedish skuld (“debt, guilt, blame”), Norwegian skyld (“guilt”), Icelandic skuld (“debt”), Lithuanian kaltė (“guilt”).

Alternative forms

• scyld, sculd, scylde

Noun

shild (plural shilde or shilden)

1. Debt; fault; guilt.

Derived terms

• shildy

Etymology 2

Noun

shild

1. Alternative form of scheld