"skillen"

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, Mark.  I had looked at skilling(2), but put it aside because
I didn't think the Dutch or Scandinavian monetary unit was what
Calderwood was referring to when he wrote "skillen".  But his two
quotations containing "skillen" seem inconsistent as to its
value.  What I was really after was the value of a pistole (in pounds
sterling), and I now have a more reliable source, John McCusker's
_Money and exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775 : a
handbook_.  So I can ignore the skillen/skilling.

P.S.  Yes I agree that "skillen" should appear as a headword --
unless two quotations from a single author is not sufficient, or as
an alternate spelling -- unless the gurus don't think Calderwood's
skillen is a skilling(2)!

Joel

At 10/21/2008 03:31 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
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>
>Skillen appears as an alternate spelling only for skilling(1), origin
>obscure, "A shed or outhouse, esp. a lean-to, a penthouse" and closely
>related meanings. The monetary sense looks like a variant of
>skilling(2), which is cognate to shilling, and should appear as an
>entry or alternate spelling.
>
>--------
>
>skilling(2)
>[In sense 1 ad. Du. schelling; in sense 2 a. Da., Sw., or Norw. skilling.]
>
>     {dag}1. = SCHELLING. Obs.{em}1
>1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Indies i. 6 The Cash-keeper paid
>us..three Dutch Skillings every day while we stayed on Shoar.
>
>     2. A small copper coin and money of account formerly in use in
> Scandinavia.
>1793 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 232/2 [In] Denmark..and Norway..16
>Skillings = a Marc [= 9d]. 1802 ACERBI Trav. I. 220 The poor mendicant
>finished by asking..some..skillings in charity. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV.
>326/1 Ryksort, a Danish silver coin at 24 skillings. 1875 JEVONS Money
>xi. 126 The skilling [of Norway] being nearly equal in value to an
>English halfpenny.
>
>--------
>
>etym. of shilling
>
>[Common Teut.: OE. scilling masc. = OFris. skilling, skilleng,
>schilling, MDu. schellingh (Du. schelling), OS. scilling (MLG.
>schillink, schildink, mod.LG. schillink, schilling), OHG. scilling,
>skillink, schilling (MHG., G. schilling), ON. skilling-r (Icel. also
>skildingr, SW., Da. skilling), Goth. skilliggs:{em}OTeut.
>*skilli{ng}go-z. Adopted in OSlav. as sk{ubreve}l{ehook}z{ibreve}, in
>Sp., Pr., Fr. as escalin (13th c. F. eskallin, mod.F. also schelling),
>It. scellino.
>
>-------------
>
>Mark Mandel
>
>
>
>On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > The OED has two quotes implying that a skillen is some quantity of
> > money (both, incidentally, from the same author and year, 1756), but
> > it is not a headword or a sense (it appears under "skilling", for
> > which it seems to be an alternate spelling).
> >
> > Second, can anyone tell me how much a skillen was worth, in the
> > standard units of British currency (as someone wrote once, pounds,
> > shillings, and ounces)?
> >
> > Joel
> >
>
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