lozenge
[loz-inj]
- a small, flavored tablet made from sugar or syrup, often medicated, originally diamond-shaped.
- Geometry Now Rare. diamond(def 8).
- Heraldry.
- a diamond-shaped charge.
- a diamond-shaped shield bearing the arms of a woman.
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Origin of lozenge
1300–50; Middle English losenge < Middle French, Old French, perhaps < Gaulish *lausa flat stone + -enge < Germanic -inga -ing3
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lozenge
Historical Examples
The mascle is afterwards explained to be the lozenge pierced.
Napoleon took a lozenge, put it in his mouth, and glanced at his watch.
War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy
A Widow bears on a lozenge the arms borne by her husband and herself.
The Handbook to English HeraldryCharles Boutell
In an instant the apartment had shifted its form into that of a lozenge.
The Works of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe
This lozenge has since been taken up and replaced by another.
The Memoirs of Victor HugoVictor Hugo
lozenge
- Also called: pastille, troche med a medicated tablet held in the mouth until it has dissolved
- geometry another name for rhombus
- heraldry a diamond-shaped charge
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French losange, of Gaulish origin; compare Vulgar Latin lausa flat stone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for lozenge
n.
figure having four equal sides and two acute and two obtuse angles, early 14c., from Old French losenge "windowpane, small square cake," etc., used for many flat quadrilateral things (Modern French losange). It has cognates in Spanish losanje, Catalan llosange, Italian lozanga. Probably from a pre-Roman Celtic language, perhaps Iberian *lausa or Gaulish *lausa "flat stone" (cf. Provençal lausa, Spanish losa, Catalan llosa, Portuguese lousa "slab, tombstone"), from a pre-Celtic language.
Originally in English a term in heraldry; meaning "small cake or tablet (originally diamond-shaped) of medicine and sugar, etc., meant to be held in the mouth and dissolved" is from 1520s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
lozenge
(lŏz′ĭnj)- A small, medicated candy intended to be dissolved slowly in the mouth to lubricate and soothe irritated tissues of the throat.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.