scute

English

Detail of an alligator foot, showing scutes

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skjuːt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt

Noun

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.

Synonyms

• scutum

Translations

plate or scale

• Finnish: kilpi (fi)
• Japanese: 稜鱗 (ja) (りょうりん, ryōrin)
• Polish: tarczka (pl) f
• Swedish: sköld (sv) c, fjäll (sv) n

Anagrams

• Cetus, cutes