scute

Borrowed from Latin scutum (“shield”). Compare scutum, escudo, scudo, and écu.

• IPA^(key): /skjuːt/

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• Rhymes: -uːt

scute (plural scutes)

1. (zoology) A horny, chitinous, or bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle or the skin of crocodiles.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 71:

     Then one afternoon, as he's stripping the scutes and hide from a shortnose sturgeon, an idea hits him.

2. (genetics) A proneural gene, often associated with achaete, that is required for the formation of many larval and adult sense organs
3. (obsolete) A small shield.
   • a. 1529, John Skelton, Why come ye not to Court:

     yet they ouer ſhoote us
     With crownes and with ſcutus With Scutes and crownes
     I drede we are bought and ſolde

4. (historical) An old French gold coin.

• scutum

• Cetus, cutes