lozenge
verbEtymology From Middle English losenge, from Old French losenge (“rhombus”), of uncertain origin.
1
To form into the shape of a lozenge.
2
To mark or emblazon with a lozenge.
lozenge
nounUK /ˈlɒzɪnd͡ʒ/ · US /ˈlɑzɪnd͡ʒ/
Etymology From Middle English losenge, from Old French losenge (“rhombus”), of uncertain origin.
1
Government, Heraldry, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Monarchy, Nobility, Politics A thin rhombus, having two acute and two obtuse angles.
- Wherein the decussis is made within a longilaterall square, with opposite angles, acute and obtuse at the intersection; and so upon progression making a Rhombus or Lozenge figuration [...].1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 167:
- How the junior partner of Hobbs and Dobbs leads her smiling to the carriage with the lozenge upon it, and the fat wheezy coachman!1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 9, in Vanity Fair:
2 more examples
- His sloppy socks were of scarlet wool with lilac lozenges; […]1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 1.1, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 7:
- The floor is constructed from marble lozenges and triangles of every imaginable hue: yellow and pink and all manner of mottled and blotched shades, framed in white.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 14:
2
A small tablet (originally diamond-shaped) or medicated sweet used to ease a sore throat.
- One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- In the same way that Old Europe’s coffeehouses begat insurance companies, he says, today’s political careers beget an unhealthy relationship with throat lozenges.2012 May 5, Henry Alford, “Future TED Talks”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 May 2012:
- Derived terms
- conversation lozenge, lozenge coach, lozengelike, lozengeways, lozengewise, throat lozenge
- Related terms
- lozengy