They mean "Shield" as in barrier. It does feels weird for the paladin, who has a literal shield, to not be the tank using "shield" mitigation.
What's funny is that DRK also had a lot of parry incentive on release, gave it a duelist feel as a tank (which I honestly really enjoyed).
Do any of these matters when it comes to savage and ultimate? well i guess PLD does use his shield"Passage of Arms. And by shield what i mean is indeed as Kalaam mentioned. Barrier.
Divine Veil, Intervention, PoA are all "shield" based unless you mean something else again.

and it would be weird to not use them in savage and ultimate.