escutcheon

UK/ɪˈskʌt͡ʃən/US/ɪˈskʌt͡ʃən/

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,403 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: escutcheons

An escutcheon is the shield on which a coat of arms is shown. A carved escutcheon, the family escutcheon, a blot on the escutcheon.

A blot on the escutcheon means a stain on somebody's reputation, and it is the phrase most people meet the word in. In hardware, an escutcheon is the plate around a keyhole or a tap. The Latin scutum means a shield.

Definitions of escutcheon

1nounescutcheonThe shield on which a coat of arms is shown.C2
“The family's escutcheon, carved above the castle gate, showed a red lion.”

escutcheon is a shield.

Where it comes from

Old French escusson comes from Latin scutum, a shield.

Middle English
scochon
English, today
escutcheon

From Middle English scochon. From Middle English scochon, from Anglo-Norman escuchon, Old French escusson (French écusson), ultimately from Latin scutum (“shield”). Related to a doublet of scutum and scute and scudo and escudo and écu.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

escutcheon in the wild

On the front is the escutcheon from the state seal, and on the reverse is a gold figure of a beaver, the state animal.
Flag of Oregon
In the first sense, an escutcheon is the shield upon which a coat of arms is displayed.
Escutcheon (heraldry)
In the second sense, an escutcheon can itself be a charge within a coat of arms.
Escutcheon (heraldry)
A lozenge throughout has "four corners touching the border of the escutcheon".
Lozenge (heraldry)
The arms consists of an escutcheon and features a three-towered red castle under which hangs a golden key.
Coat of arms of Gibraltar

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary