scutum

Borrowed from Latin scūtum (“shield”). Doublet of escudo, scudo, scute, and écu.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskjuːtəm/

scutum (plural scuta or scutums)

1. (historical, Roman antiquity) An oblong shield made of boards or wickerwork covered with leather, with sometimes an iron rim; carried chiefly by the heavily armed infantry of the Roman army.
2. (zoology) A scute.
3. (zoology) A shield-like protection, such as the scutum protecting the back of a hard tick (cf. alloscutum, conscutum)
   • 2009, Dwight D. Bowman, Georgis' Parasitology for Veterinarians:

     A tick's eye, if present, is a mere roundish lucent area at the margin of the scutum about opposite the second coxa.

4. (zoology) One of the two lower valves of the operculum of a barnacle.
5. (anatomy) The kneecap.

• scuta

Referred to either Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”) or Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, split”). See Old Irish scíath, Russian щит (ščit).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈskuː.tum/, [ˈs̠kuːt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsku.tum/, [ˈskuːt̪um]

• Audio (Classical)

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scūtum n (genitive scūtī); second declension

1. a shield, especially the scutum, the large oblong wooden shield carried by the Roman infantry
2. (by metonymy) shield-bearing soldiers
3. (figuratively) a defense, protection, shelter

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• “scutum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “scutum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• scutum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “scutum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “scutum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin