scute vs scutum

scute

noun
  • A horny, chitinous, or bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle or the skin of crocodiles. 

  • An old French gold coin. 

  • A proneural gene, often associated with achaete, that is required for the formation of many larval and adult sense organs 

scutum

noun
  • A shield-like protection, such as the scutum protecting the back of a hard tick (cf. alloscutum, conscutum) 

  • The kneecap. 

  • One of the two lower valves of the operculum of a barnacle. 

  • A scute. 

  • An oblong shield made of boards or wickerwork covered with leather, with sometimes an iron rim; carried chiefly by the heavily armed infantry of the Roman army. 

How often have the words scute and scutum occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )