Sheld
/ʃɛld/noun
Having a variegated, spotted, or pied coloration; chiefly dialectal or archaic.
Did you know?The word survives most visibly in “shelduck,” whose name refers to the duck’s strikingly variegated plumage rather than to a supernatural meaning.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic
*skelduz
“A shield or protective covering; the reconstructed ancestral form associated with the later shield/sheld word-family.”
Old English
Old English
scield
“A shield, especially a defensive object carried in battle.”
Middle English
Middle English
scheld
“A shield; the spelling also developed dialectal uses connected with a marked or variegated appearance.”
14th–15th Century
English
sheld
“Pied, spotted, or variously colored.”
Modern English
English
sheld
“An archaic or dialectal adjective meaning variegated, spotted, or pied; preserved especially in “shelduck.””