Escudo
/esˈkuðo/noun
A shield or, in some countries, a former monetary unit.
Did you know?*Escudo* comes from the Latin word for shield, and in Spanish and Portuguese the same root named both a warrior’s defense and later a currency, as if value itself had to be protected.
Etymological Timeline
Latin
Latin
scūtum
“a shield, especially a large Roman shield”
Late Latin
Vulgar Latin
*scūtum*
“a shield; the inherited spoken form behind Romance descendants”
Old Spanish
Spanish
escudo
“a shield”
14th Century
Portuguese
escudo
“a shield”
Modern English
English
escudo
“a former Spanish or Portuguese coin or currency unit”
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