Shield

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Old English scild (noun), scildan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schild and German Schild, from a base meaning ‘divide, separate’.

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From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield(“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz(“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH-(“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld, Dutch schild(“shield”), German Schild(“shield”), Danish skjold(“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur(“shield”) and Faroese skjøldur(“shield”)

Compare Latin scūtum(“shield”), Irish sciath(“shield”), Latgalian škīda(“shield”), Lithuanian skydas(“shield”), Russian щит(ščit, “shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-(“to cover, protect”), *skey-(“to cut, split”).

From Middle English shelden, from Old English scildan.

etymonline

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shield (n.)

Old English scield, scild "shield; protector, defense," literally "board," from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (source also of Old Norse skjöldr, Old Saxon skild, Middle Dutch scilt, Dutch schild, German Schild, Gothic skildus), from *skel- "divide, split, separate," from PIE root *skel- (1) "to cut." Perhaps the notion is of a flat piece of wood made by splitting a log. Shield volcano (1911) translates German Schildvulkan (1910). Plate tectonics sense is from 1906, translating Suess (1888).

shield (v.)

Old English gescildan, from the root of shield (n.). Related: Shielded; shielding. Compare German scilden.