Pl. solidi; also 5–7 solidos. [L., a substantival use of solidus (sc. nummus) SOLID a. The form solidos is the L. acc. pl.]
1. a. A gold coin of the Roman empire, originally worth about 25 denarii. † b. A shilling.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 313. Gentil men hade rynges, and oþere hadde solidy þat were hole and sownde.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VII. 301. Kynge William toke this yere of every hyde of grownde in Ynglonde vj. solidos of silver.
1487. in Paston Lett., III. App. 463. I bequeith to the reparacion of the stepull of the said churche of Saint Albane xx. solidos.
1609. Bible (Douay), 1 Chron. xxix. 7. And they gaue … of gold, fiue thousand talentes, and ten thousand solidos.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Solidus, an entire or whole piece of Gold-Coin, near the Value of our old Noble or Spur-Royal; but it is now taken for a Shilling.
1860. C. R. Smith, in Archæol. Cant., III. 38. The solidi of the Eastern Empire were commonly imitated in France under the Merovingian princes.
1885. Athenæum, 24 Oct., 541/2. Mr. Webster exhibited … a gold solidus of Constantius.
2. A sloping line used to separate shillings from pence, as 12/6; a shilling-mark. Also attrib.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1898. G. Chrystal, Introd. Algebra, i. (1902), 3. The symbols / (solidus notation) and: (ratio notation) are equivalent to ÷.
1905. F. H. Collins, Author & Printer, s.v.
1909. Athenæum, 27 March, 379/1. The last … have been quick to adopt the use of the solidus or slanting line instead of the horizontal bar in writing fractions.
