shilling

See also: Shilling and schilling

English

1955 British shilling coin

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlɪŋ
• Hyphenation: shil‧ling

Etymology 1

From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English sċilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz, equivalent to skill +‎ -ing. Doublet of scalding and schilling.

Noun

shilling (plural shillings)

1. (historical) A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, 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

• (Britain, Ireland, Australia, East Africa): bob, generalise, gen, hog, Abraham's willing (archaic)
• (Australia): deener

Derived terms

• King's shilling
• look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence
• Queen's shilling
• shilling mark
• shilling shocker
• shilling sign
• shillingsworth
• take the shilling
• tenpence to the shilling
• the full shilling

 

Translations

former coin

• Afrikaans: sjieling
• Bulgarian: шилинг m (šiling)
• Catalan: xíling (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先令 (zh) (xiānlìng)

• Cornish: please add this translation if you can
• Esperanto: ŝilingo (eo)
• Finnish: šillinki (fi)
• French: shilling (fr) m, (obsolete) chelin (fr) m
• German: Schilling (de) m
• Greek: σελίνι (el) n (selíni)
• Hindi: शिलिंग (hi) m (śiliṅg)
• Irish: scilling f
• Italian: scellino (it) m
• Japanese: シリング (shiringu)
• Korean: 실링 (silling)
• Malay: syiling (ms)
• Maori: heringi
• Norman: ch'lîn m (Jersey)
• Polish: szyling (pl) m
• Portuguese: xelim (pt) m
• Romanian: șiling (ro) m
• Russian: ши́ллинг (ru) m (šílling)
• Scots: shillin
• Scottish Gaelic: tastan m
• Spanish: chelín (es) m
• Sranan Tongo: sren
• Welsh: swllt m

currency

• Afrikaans: sjieling
• Arabic: شِلِّن m (šillin)
• Bulgarian: шилинг m (šiling)
• Catalan: xíling (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先令 (zh) (xiānlìng)

• Esperanto: ŝilingo (eo)
• Finnish: šillinki (fi)
• French: shilling (fr) m
• German: Schilling (de) m
• Irish: scilling f
• Italian: scellino (it) m
• Japanese: シリング (shiringu)
• Kazakh: шиллинг (şilliñ)
• Korean: 실링 (silling)
• Malay: syiling (ms)
• Maori: heringi
• Polish: szyling (pl) m
• Portuguese: xelim (pt) m
• Romanian: șiling (ro) m
• Russian: ши́ллинг (ru) m (šílling)
• Somali: shilin (so)
• Spanish: chelín (es) m
• Swahili: shilingi (sw)
• Welsh: swllt m

See also

• schilling
• skilding
• skilling
• solidus

 

Further reading

• Currencies of the world

Etymology 2

See shill.

Verb

shilling

1. present participle and gerund of shill

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃi.liŋ/

Noun

shilling m (plural shillings)

1. shilling (old UK coin)

Further reading

• “shilling”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

shilling

1. Alternative form of schilling

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English shilling, from Middle English shilling, Old English sċilling, and ultimately Proto-Germanic *skillingaz. Doublet of schilling and skilling.

Noun

shilling m (definite singular shillingen, indefinite plural shilling, definite plural shillingene)

1. (numismatics, also historical) a shilling

References

• “shilling” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “shilling” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English shilling, from Middle English shilling, Old English sċilling, and ultimately Proto-Germanic *skillingaz. Doublet of schilling and skilling.

Noun

shilling m (plural shillingen)

1. (historical, numismatics) a shilling
2. a shilling: the currency of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda

References

• “shilling” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “shilling”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016