escudo

American  

[e-skoo-doh, es-koo-doo, es-koo-thaw] / ɛˈsku doʊ, ɛsˈku dʊ, ɛsˈku ðɔ /

noun

• escudos
  plural

1. a coin and monetary unit of Cape Verde, equal to 100 centavos.

2. a former coin and monetary unit of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.

3. a former paper money and monetary unit of Chile, equal to 100 condors or 1000 pesos, replaced by the new peso in 1975.

4. any of various former gold coins of Spain, Spanish America, and Portugal.

5. a former silver coin of Spain, discontinued in 1868.

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escudo British  

/ ɪʃˈkuðu, ɛˈskuːdəʊ /

noun

1. the standard monetary unit of Cape Verde, divided into 100 centavos

2. the former standard monetary unit of Portugal, divided into 100 centavos; replaced by the euro in 2002

3. a former monetary unit of Chile, divided into 100 centesimos

4. an old Spanish silver coin worth 10 reals

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• escudos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of escudo

1815–25; < Spanish: shield < Latin scūtum

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

escudo escudos

Taxes are rising, the cost of living is increasing, and the escudo is no longer the hardest currency in Europe.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week, having accounted for the very last nickel, yen, leu, franc, shilling, florin, drachma, peso, pengo, rupee, escudo, zloty, mark and finmark.

From Time Magazine Archive

PORTUGAL, which for cognoscenti has long been a charming backwater, may be Europe's best bargain as a result of a 45% devaluation of the escudo in one year.

From Time Magazine Archive

Anxiously Madrid foresaw that Portugal, by letting her escudo slide with sterling, will be able to offer drink, etc. to thirsty Britons cheaper than Spain, whose peseta is semi-stabilized on a gold basis.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nov. 23, 1586— The escudo increased to 400 maravedis.

From The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 by William Arthur Shaw

Vendors have recently taken to marketing them as match-day scarves, while in Spanish they are labeled, more lyrically, bufandas con los dos escudos, or scarves with two shields.

From New York Times ● May 4, 2015

Nobody wants their 10,000-euro nest egg to be suddenly turned into 10,000 much-less-valuable new escudos.

From Slate ● May 17, 2012

Owing euros to depositors, and getting devalued drachmas, or lira, or escudos or pesetas from borrowers is one way to make capital vanish.

From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2011

One typical family with a monthly income of 1,200 escudos in May paid out 1,663 escudos for rent, food, clothing, water and light.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now and henceforth, in accordance with the revision, they receive thirty escudos of ten-real pieces.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century, Volume XXVI, 1636 by Emma Helen Blair