sheltron

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English

WOTD – 26 March 2022

Alternative forms

Etymology

PIE word
*dóru
A re-enactment of a sheltron or testudo of Roman soldiers at Archeon, an archaeological museum in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands

From Middle English scheltroun, sheltroun (“group of soldiers or army in fighting formation, phalanx; battle, fighting; group of warships, fleet; (by extension) line or row of bones”) ,[1] from Old English sċieldtruma (“company of soldiers, phalanx; covering; shed, shelter; tortoise”) , from sċield (“shield; (figuratively) protection”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”)) + truma (“band or troop of men”) (possibly from trum (“firm, strong; stable, steadfast”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *drew- (“firm, hard, solid; strong; tree”), *dóru (“tree”)).[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

sheltron (plural sheltrons) (military, historical)

  1. (now chiefly historical) A compact body of troops forming a battle array or phalanx, especially such a body of Scottish troops armed with pikes during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
    • , editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XXIX, London: D Henry and R. Cave, , published 14 November 1759, →OCLC, page 521, column 1:
      The ſheltron of the foremen of the fyrſt ſort, ſhalbe ſet in the ryght corner, and wete thou well that cohort is not ellis but the numbre of fyfty hundred knyghtis, and eṽry legion is ten comportes. Than as I ſaid before, the ſheltron of foremen of the fyrſt cohort, ſhude be ſet in the fyr[ſ]t corner of the ſheldron, and to hem the ſecunde cohort ſhalbe joined. [From an anonymous English translation of Vigetus de re Militari.]]
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 12:
      As the group tops a crest, there is a skip of panic among them, and they instinctively cluster around the youngest, a schiltrom of hooves and teeth.

Translations

any compact body of troops forming a battle array or phalanx

References

  1. ^ “sheltrǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “† sheltron, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “† trume | trome, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2021.

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

sheltron

  1. Alternative form of scheltroun
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