1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lozenge

LOZENGE (from the Fr. losenge, or losange; the word also appears in Span. losanje, and Ital. losanga; perhaps derived from a word meaning a stone slab laid on a grave, which appears in forms such as Provençal lousa, Span. losa, the ultimate origin of which is unknown, the Lat. lapis, stone, or laus, praise, in the sense of epitaph, have been suggested), properly a four equal-sided figure, having two acute and two obtuse angles, a rhomb or “diamond.” The figure is frequently used as a bearing in heraldry and especially as a shield so shaped on which the arms of a widow or spinster are emblazoned. It is used also to denote the diamond-shaped facets of a precious stone when cut, also the diamond panes of a casement window. In the 14th century the “lozenge pattern” was a favourite design for decoration. The word is also applied to a small tablet of sugar, originally diamond shaped, containing either medical drugs or some simple flavouring, or to a tablet of any concentrated substance, such as a meat-lozenge. In the reign of James I. of Scotland (1406–1437) a Scotch gold coin having a lozenge-shaped shield with the arms of Scotland on the obverse side was called a “lozenge-lion.”