scudo

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noun

A silver coin and unit of currency of various Italian states from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

OriginItalian scudo ← Latin scutum →
RareScrabble 8
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Meanings

nounscudo (plural scudos or scudoes or scudi)

plural scudos · plural scudoes · plural scudi

  1. historicalA silver coin and unit of currency of various Italian states from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

    And this was the salvation of his house, for several large chunks of plaster cracked off and inside he discovered a pot full of golden scudos.

    2007, Giambattista Basile, translated by Nancy L. Canepa, Tale of Tales, Penguin, page 46
  2. A former unit of currency in Malta, now the official currency of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
  3. historicalA unit of currency in 19th-century Bolivia, equal to 16 soles.

Origin

  1. Latinscutum“a shield”
  2. Italianscudo“a crown, a dollar, a shield”
  3. Englishscudo

Borrowed from Italian scudo (“a crown, a dollar, a shield”), from Latin scutum (“a shield”). Compare the doublets scute, escudo, scutum, and écu.

More words from Italian, Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

scudo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scudo

MLA

“scudo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scudo. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scudo,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scudo.

Source: scudo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.