shilling
(ˈʃɪlɪŋ)
Forms: 1 scilling, scylling, (-ingc), 3 ssillinge, 3–6 schillinge, 4 ssyllyng, 4–5 schillyng(e, schelyng(e, shulleng(e, schullyng(e, 4–6 schiling, shill-, shyllyng(e, -inge, silling, 4–7 schilling, 5 schyllynge, shylynge, schilenge, silyn, 5–6 sheling, -yng(e, shellyng(e, 6 scheling(e, schillengge, shealinge, shyllyn, syllyng, 4– shilling.
[Common Teut.: OE. scilling masc. = OFris. skilling, skilleng, schilling, MDu. schellingh (Du. schelling), OS. scilling (MLG. schillink, schildink, mod.LG. schillink, schilling), OHG. scilling, skillink, schilling (MHG., G. schilling), ON. skilling-r (Icel. also skildingr, SW., Da. skilling), Goth. skilliggs:—OTeut. *skilliŋgo-z. Adopted in OSlav. as skŭlęzĭ, in Sp., Pr., Fr. as escalin (13th c. F. eskallin, mod.F. also schelling), It. scellino.
The Teut. word is referred by some etymologists to the root *skell- to resound, ring (see shill a. and v.1). Others assign it to the root *skel- to divide (whence skill v., shale n., shell n., etc.); some have conjectured that the word originally denoted one of the segments of fixed weight into which an armlet of gold or silver was divided, so that they might be detached for use as money. In the bilingual documents of the 6th century, Goth. skilliggs corresponds to the L. solidus; in mediæval Germany the Teut. and the Latin word were commonly used to render each other, but in England the correspondence appears to have been only occasionally recognized until Norman times.
The value of the ‘shilling’ in continental Teut. countries has varied greatly; its relation to the penny and the pound has also varied, though a widely accepted scale was 1 pound or libra = 20 shillings or solidi = 240 pennies or denarii. See schelling, schilling1, skilling2.]
1. a. A former English money of account, from the Norman Conquest of the value of 12d. or 1/20 of a pound sterling. Abbreviated s. (= L. solidus: see solidus1), formerly also sh., shil.; otherwise denoted by the sign /- after the numeral. No longer in official use after the introduction of decimal coinage in 1971, but still occas. used to denote five new pence.
Before the Norman Conquest the value of the shilling varied in different times and places. It was 5 pence in Wessex and 4 pence in Mercia; the shilling of 12 pence mentioned in two passages c 1000 may refer to the continental solidus.
| c 900 Laws of Ine §2 (Liebermann) 90 Cild binnan ðrite⁓ᵹum nihta sie ᵹefulwad. Ᵹif hit swa ne sie, xxx scill. ᵹebete. c 1000 ælfric Gram. l. (Z.) 296 Fif peneᵹas ᵹemaciað ænne scylling. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7870 To eche chirche of þe lond vif ssillinges me ber. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 146 If any frere were founde þere Ich ȝif þe fyue shillynges. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xi. 34 That euery man þat were blinde, shuld haue an Cs. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 3/8 For to lerne rekene By poundes, by shelynges, by pens. 1556 in W. Kelly Notices Illustr. Drama (1865) 194 For ix yards of Clothe at fure shyllyns the yarde for the Weyts gownes xxxvjs. 1613 J. Tapp Pathw. Knowl. 21 Then 3. shillings from 20. shil. leaues 17. shillings. 1663 Pepys Diary 27 May, Afterwards to ninepins, where I won a shilling. 1856 Jrnl. Soc. Arts IV. 361/1 This would be all very well were he to get a shilling's worth for a shilling. 1881 F. J. Crowest Phases Mus. Eng. 148 One tradesman could well afford to sell at one penny or so less in the shilling. |
b. In Scotland, Ireland, America, etc. Also used as a unit of currency (representing variously 12 pence and 100 cents) in other countries, as Kenya, Uganda, Malta, etc.;
freq. preceded by the name of the issuing country; also, the coin itself.
Through gradual debasement of the coinage the shilling Scots, by the 17th c., was worth only 1d. English.
| 1462 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 313 They to les a honderyt schelynges. 1488–91 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 167 Hary nobillis gevin for thretty tua schillingis the pece. 1543 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 413 To the Kepere of the Tolsell cloke of Dublin [thirty] five sillings. 1550 Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland Club) I. 450 Payand heirfor ȝeirlie allevin schelingis aucht penneis. 1712 Mus. Thoresby. (1713) 389 The Proportion betwixt the English and Scotch Pennies, Shillings and Pounds, was then (10 Eliz.) just as one to six, but before he [James I] came into England, it was just doubled; so that the English Penny was exactly the Scotch Shilling, our Twentypence their Pound. 1891 Century Dict. s.v., Reckoning by the shilling is still not uncommon in some parts of the United States, especially in rural New England. 1921 W. S. Churchill in Hansard Commons 30 May 596 As recommended by the Currency Committee appointed in Kenya in February, 1921, the standard coin will be, not a florin, but a shilling... Rupee contracts..will be construed at the rate of two shillings to one rupee. 1927 W. M. Ross Kenya from Within xii. 208 The new scheme..was that both florin and rupee should disappear, the shilling be introduced and all existing cental coins be degraded, by edict, to half their value. 1969 Times 16 Sept. (Somali Republic Suppl.) p. v/3 The internal value of the Somali shilling has..been relatively stable. 1977 Times 24 June 14/8 On the free market in Kenya..100 Uganda shillings usually bring no more than 20 Kenya shillings. |
c. a shilling great,
a shilling of groats: see
great a. 8 e,
groat 1.
| 1593 in Extracts Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1870) I. 408 Tuentie schillingis greitt ilk barrell beir. |
d. unchanged in plural. (Now
vulgar.)
| a 1300 Floriz & Bl. 126 (Camb. MS.) And for his niȝtes gestinge He ȝaf his oste an hundred schillinge. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 141 The beggar..sald this corn igain him to, And toc thar for fif schilling. 14.. Emare 524 She ȝaf hym for þat tydynge A robe and fowrty shylynge. 1521–2 Stirling Burgh Rec. (1887) I. 15 To gife four schilling yeirly..to the dekin of the maltmen. 1752 J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 263 Item, for each Mile..there shall be paid to him a further Sum of six Shilling. |
e. Used in emphatic or rhetorical statements, where one wishes to be understood as deliberately reckoning or accounting for every item, however small, of a given sum or expense.
| 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 657/1 This exclusive Privilege cannot be taken from either of them, till every Shilling due to them by the Publick be paid off. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia iv. i, He protested..he would pay away every shilling he was worth, rather than witness such injustice. 1815 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. (1838) XII. 453, I will not engage to pay one shilling more than the expenses really incurred by Hanover. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. i. 9 Every shilling spent in the house did its full twelve pennies' worth of work. |
2. a. A silver (subsequently cupro-nickel) coin of the value of 12 pence. First issued by Henry VII, in 1503. No longer in official use after the introduction of decimal coinage in 1971, but still
occas. used to denote the five-pence piece.
The coin itself was allowed to circulate for some time after decimalization, alongside the new (and equivalent) five-pence piece, which it resembled in shape, size, weight, and composition.
| a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vii. (1533) 233 In the forenamed parlyament [of 1504] was ordeyned a new coyne of syluer, as grotes, half grotes, & shyllynges with half faces. 1549 Latimer 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 35 We haue nowe a prety litle shilling, in dede a very pretye one. 1639 O. Wood Alph. Bk. Secrets 39 Take so much of this as will lie on a shilling in Anniseed-water fasting. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 688 Still Amorous, and fond, and Billing, Like Philip and Mary on a Shilling. 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 144 One quarter of a grain was sufficient to produce a good blister as large as a shilling. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. ii, Two new shillings in his breeches-pockets. 1974 ‘J. le Carré’ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy i. 18 Spikely discovered..a draft of the next day's examination paper, and rented it to candidates at five new pence a time. Several boys paid their shilling. |
b. With defining word indicating a particular coinage.
| 1699 Nicolson Eng. Hist. Libr. iii. 313 Elizabeth..caus'd indeed some Irish Shillings (call'd Harpers..) to be made of a baser kind than the English, so that they usually pass'd for Ninepence here. 1712 Mus. Thoresby. (1713) 365 The Portcluse Shilling [see portcullis n. 3 b]. 1715 S. Sewall Diary 12 Sept. (1882) III. 56 Gave Mr. Short's daughter a New-England Shilling. 1764 Mus. Thoresby. 13 [Lot] 201. Lord Baltimore's Shilling (a Proof Six-pence in Copper) and 3 New England Shillings. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Shilling, the name given in the State of New York, to the Spanish real; in the neighbouring States it is frequently called a York shilling. |
c. half-shilling,
quarter-shilling, Tudor coins of the value of 6d. and 3d. respectively.
| 1561 Procl. Base Moneys 15 Nov., There shalbe immediatly coyned in fine sterlyng moneys, halfe shyllynges of six pence, quarter shyllynges of three pence the peece, and a halfe peece thereof called three halfpence. 1695 Lowndes Ess. Amend. Silver Coins 50 Half-shillings, Groats, Quarter-Shillings, Half-Groats. |
d. little shilling, Cobbett's name for a proposed silver shilling of considerably reduced intrinsic value. Hence used by Macaulay in reference to a similar proposal in 1695.
| 1826 Cobbett Weekly Reg. 7 Oct. 94/2 This city [Worcester], or this neighbourhood, at least, being the birthplace of what I have called, the ‘Little-Shilling Project’, and Messrs. Atwood and Spooner being the originators of the project. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 640 Montague, after defeating..those who were for the little shilling. |
† 3. a. Used, after L.
solidus, as a denomination of weight
= 1/
20 of a pound. (
Cf. solid n.2)
b. Sc. The weight of twelve silver pennies.
Obs.| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 240 Ᵹenim of ðysse wyrte petroseline swyþe smæl dust, anes scillinges ᵹewihte. a 1400 in Sc. Acts Parl. (1844) I. 673 Þe pund in King Dauidis dayis weyit xxv. schillingis. Now þe pund aw to wey in siluer xxvi schillingis and iij sterling penijs. 1543 tr. Stat. Bread & Ale 51 Hen. III, §1 When a quarter of wheate is solde for .xii.d. then wastell bread of a ferthynge shall way .vi. li. and .xvi. s. [orig. sex libras et sexdecim solidos]. 1596 Recorde's Ground of Arts 319 Therefore here by a shilling you must vnderstand 1/20 of a pound weight. |
† 4. Used to render or represent the names of various foreign moneys.
Obs. double shilling, a Dutch florin or guilder.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 15 Ða ᵹesetton him ðrittih scillinga [Vulg. triginta argenteos]. Ibid. Luke xv. 9 Forðon ic fand þæt scilling [Vulg. dragmam] ðæt ic forleas. c 1000 ælfric Exod. xxi. 32 Selle þam hlaforde þritiᵹ scillinga seolfres [Vulg. triginta siclos argenti domino dabit]. c 1050 in Wr.-Wülcker 460/17 Obelus, scilling. c 1050 Suppl. ælfric's Gloss. ibid. 183/21 Numisma, scylling. a 1225 Ancr. R. 398 Two hundred sicles [v.r. schillinges] of seolure. a 1300 Cursor M. 6722 Thritti schiling o siluer again Sal man giue þe lord to mend [Exod. xxi. 32]. 1744 M. Bishop Life & Adv. 140 Each [of the officers] gave me a double Shilling. 1753 [see schilling1]. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. iv. I. 32 The French sou or shilling appears upon different occasions to have contained five, twelve, twenty, forty, and forty-eight pennies. |
5. a. In various proverbial expressions (see
quots.).
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. ii. v. (1867) 54 He maketh his marts with marchantis likely, To bryng a shillyng to .ix. pens quickely. [Cf. noble n.1 2 b.] 1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin i. vii. 32 Thus the Cardinal only changeth the Popes shilling into Twelve-pence. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet ch. x, He will come back again, like the ill shilling—he is not the sort of gear that tynes. 1826 ― Woodst. x, Hark ye, good fellow,..I will bestow on thee a shilling wet and a shilling dry if thou wilt go back with me. |
b. to cut off with a shilling: see
cut v. 56 i.
| 1700 Farquhar Constant Couple iv. iii. 43 When I die, I'll leave him the Fee-Simple of a Rope and a Shilling. |
| 1762 Colman Mus. Lady ii. 27 I'll disinherit him—I won't leave him a groat—I'll cut him off with a shilling. |
c. to take the shilling,
the King's shilling or
Queen's shilling: to enlist as a soldier by accepting a shilling from a recruiting officer (a practice now disused).
| 1707 Hearne Collect. 27 Mar. (O.H.S.) II. 2 He did take a shilling, but not with any intent of listing. 1852 Thackeray Esmond iii. v, One fellow was jilted by his mistress, and took the shilling in despair. 1886 Farjeon Three Times Tried 1, I took the Queen's shilling, and became a soldier. 1901 Scotsman 4 Mar. 8/1 A contingent of Volunteer Engineers was sworn in for service in South Africa. Each man was presented..with the King's shilling. |
† d. (See
quot.)
Obs.| 1802 James Milit. Dict., The Shillings. A phrase in familiar use among army brokers, to express a certain profit or per centage which they gain in the sale, purchase, and exchange of commissions. |
6. attrib., with the sense ‘of the price or value of a shilling’, ‘for which a shilling is charged or is due’, as
shilling gallery,
shilling ordinary,
shilling places,
shilling points (in a game, hence
shilling whist, etc.),
shilling seats; (sense 1 b)
shilling bill;
shilling dreadful or
shocker, a short sensational novel, published at a shilling;
shilling mark Typogr. = solidus1 2.
| 1976 K. Thackeray Crownbird viii. 161 Priest..tucked some hundred *shilling bills into his pocket. |
| 1885 Athenæum 14 Nov. 638/1 Mr. R. L. Stevenson is writing another ‘*shilling dreadful’. |
| 1801 Monthly Mirror June 421 He grins and looks broad nonsense with a stare, to the vast delight of the *shilling gallery. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet Let. iii, I heard my varlet of a guide as loud with his blackguard jokes in the kitchen, as a footman in the shilling gallery. |
| 1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocabulary 123 *Shilling mark, the sign thus / which was used in old books as a ‘scratch comma’. 1904 Murray & Bradley Hart's Rules for Compositors (ed. 15) 29 The diagonal sign / or ‘shilling-mark’. |
| 1780 Mirror No. 91 Their former dinners with him at a *shilling ordinary. |
| 1857 A. Mayhew Paved with Gold iii. xi, The *shilling places were packed in half an hour. |
| 1854 Gunning Remin. Camb. I. 22 We played *shilling points, and occasionally half-a-crown was betted on the rubber. |
| 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 20 July 6/2 Given plenty of sensational incident and a certain coherency of plot, and you have all that is necessary to make a ‘*shilling shocker’. 1893 Vizetelly Glances back I. v. 117 No shilling shockers..to amuse us..during our uncomfortable journey. |
| 1760 Murphy Way to keep Him i. (end), Nobody plays *shilling-whist now. |
7. With prefixed numerals, forming adjectives of price or value. Also in phrases denoting rate of payment (as ‘a shilling an hour’), used
attrib. In the attributive use the ‘s’ of the plural is regularly dropped; for a contrary instance see
quot. 1683.
| a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 198 The xxx schiling peice. 1653 Ordin. Contin. Excise 17 Mar. 107 For every Barrel of six shilling Beer or Ale. 1683 Tryon Way to Health xiii. 340 Let your Drink at Meals be no stronger than nine shillings Beer. 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. i, A fellow that has but a groat in his pocket, may have a stomach capable of a ten-shilling ordinary. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth, Chron. Canongate Introd., Prepared and sold..in five shilling and ten shilling bottles. 1853 Punch XXIV. 129/1 It did one good to hear him wither a ‘super’: his manner of rolling his words at the poor trembling shilling-a-night wretch. 1866 E. Yates Land at Last I. x. 192 A model..one of the usual shilling-an-hour victims. |