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The word "ŝildo"

door guyjohnston, 13 augustus 2008

Berichten: 5

Taal: English

guyjohnston (Profiel tonen) 13 augustus 2008 01:23:45

Hi, can anyone tell me why the words for "sign" (as in large metal ones in the street) and "shield" are both "ŝildo" in Esperanto? I don't know anything about the origin of the word "shield" in English, or those of similar words in other languages, but I imagine (particularly after reading the definition in the Reta Vortaro) that it's something to do with the fact shields used in battle in the past often had things displayed on them on like coats of arms. I've seen that the word "schild" means both things in German, maybe there's one word for both in some other languages. I assume it's not just unrelated homonyms.

Timtim (Profiel tonen) 30 augustus 2008 09:46:16

guyjohnston:I've seen that the word "schild" means both things in German, maybe there's one word for both in some other languages.
You've hit on exactly what I thought of when I saw this thread title ridulo.gif

The Germans use "Schild" to mean a namebadge and the object for fighting, which is where I assume Esperanto's dual-purpose word comes in.

Interestingly English owes its word squire to shield, by analogy to Latin (and then Italian) where the bearer of the shield had a high status.

Italian coins were also known as scudi (shields) at the time of Galileo.

I wonder whether a namebadge was considered something of a mark of honour or status in Germany (like money [Italian] or a title [English]) and so used the same word.

Maybe it would feature the family crest, same as on a shield?

Miland (Profiel tonen) 30 augustus 2008 10:26:50

Something similar appears to apply to Portuguese. 'Shield' translates as escudo, but that was also the currency of Portugal during most of the 20th century and prior to the Euro (by which time it was worth only a fraction of a penny). You will find a picture of an escudo coin on the following wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_escudo

ilnaras (Profiel tonen) 7 september 2008 15:31:21

I reckon it's because a sign and a shield both have similar shapes and convey information, as well as protect. A sign protects by showing warnings and a shield informs by the heraldic pictures which display identity and lineage.

ceigered (Profiel tonen) 8 september 2008 11:24:06

Despite Esperanto being from around the 1800's, the logic to me is that ŝildo in the sense of a sign comes from the fact that often in history, particularly during the rise of street/shop signs in the middle ages, the sign was often shield like. Why this is, I'm not sure. Maybe it is to do with the reasons some people gave with the family crest et cetera, I would have thought that people might have liked the idea of putting up their family heirloom shield up on the shop's doorway ridulo.gif

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