Shilling

Shilling

Noun · /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/ · a former British coin worth twelve pence

Definition

A shilling was a British coin worth one twentieth of a pound, or twelve old pence, used from the sixteenth century until decimalisation in 1971. As a unit of account it predates the minted coin by centuries. After decimalisation, the shilling became the five-pence coin and was eventually phased out. The word survives in several East African currencies — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, and Somaliland all use a currency called the shilling — as a legacy of British colonial monetary systems. Informally in British English, to take the King's shilling or Queen's shilling historically meant to enlist in the army.

Origin

Shilling comes from Old English scilling, which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic skillingaz. The root is uncertain — possibly related to a word for a division or reckoning. Cognates exist across Germanic languages: German Schilling, Dutch schelling, Old Norse skillingr. The coin itself was first minted in England under Henry VII in 1489 and remained in use for nearly five centuries, making it one of the longest-lived denominations in British monetary history.