shilling

See also: Shilling and schilling

English

1955 British shilling coin

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪlɪŋ

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English scilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz.

Noun

shilling (plural shillings)

1. A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries.

   The shilling was worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, 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
• shilling mark
• shillingsworth

Translations

former coin

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先令 (zh) (xiānlìng)

• Finnish: šillinki (fi)
• French: shilling (fr) m, (obsolete) chelin (fr) m
• German: Schilling (de) m
• Greek: σελίνι (el) n (selíni)
• Irish: scilling f
• Italian: scellino (it) m
• Japanese: シリング (shiringu)

• Korean: 실링 (silling)
• Malay: syiling
• Maori: heringi
• Norman: ch'lîn m (Jersey)
• Portuguese: xelim (pt) m
• Romanian: șiling (ro) m
• Russian: ши́ллинг (ru) m (šílling)
• Spanish: chelín (es) m
• Welsh: swllt m

currency

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先令 (zh) (xiānlìng)

• Finnish: šillinki (fi)
• French: shilling (fr) m
• German: Schilling (de) m
• Irish: scilling f
• Japanese: シリング (shiringu)
• Korean: 실링 (silling)

• Malay: syiling
• Maori: heringi
• Portuguese: xelim (pt) m
• Romanian: șiling (ro) m
• Russian: ши́ллинг (ru) m (šílling)
• Spanish: chelín (es) m
• Welsh: swllt m

See also

• schilling
• skilding
• skilling
• solidus

Further reading

• Currencies of the world

Etymology 2

See shill.

Verb

shilling

1. present participle of shill

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃi.liŋ/

Noun

shilling m (plural shillings)

1. shilling (old UK coin)

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Middle English

Noun

shilling

1. Alternative form of schilling