scutum

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• Just as the scutum of the Roman legionnaire was seen by his barbarian opponent as a weapon that enabled him to stab with impunity, so today SDI could be seen as a shield from behind which an enemy could first launch his own disarming first strike, then use his defenses to reduce or even eliminate the effect of the resulting retaliatory strike. —  The Cardinal of the Kremlin
• [1] The proposal was agreed to (1160), and in this way the knights furnished the King the means to hire soldiers for foreign wars 1] Scutage: from the Latin scutum, a shield; the understanding being that he who would not take his shield and do battle for the King should pay enough to hire one who would. —  The Leading Facts of English History
• Dum cassis pertusa, ensis instar Serrae excisus, scutum, &c.; Barthius Caelestina 5451. —  The Anatomy of Melancholy
• But it may be regarded as certain that the hoplite shield or, in other words, the tactics of the Doric phalanx were imitated not from the Etruscans, but directly from the Hellenes, As to the -scutum-, that large, cylindrical, convex leather shield must certainly have taken the place of the flat copper -clupeus-, when the phalanx was broken up into maniples; but the undoubted derivation of the word from the Greek casts suspicion on the derivation of the thing itself from the Samnites. —  The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5)
• Parapsides: lateral pieces of the meso-scutum, separated from the mesal portion by the parapsidal furrows. —  Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology

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