12 May 2010

lozenge

This is a word that has been lurking at the far back edge of my consciousness for several years. I had always thought of a "lozenge" as being a flat disc impregnated with medicine, as in "throat lozenge," usually rather starchy in nature, with a strong medicinal flavor.

One interesting thing about this word is that I believed it to be amongst the collection of words that certain Americans have perversely modified, such as "escape" (pronounced ek-scape), "frustration" (flustration), "automatic" (automagic), and "sarcasm" (sourcasm). I have heard the pronounciation lah-zen-jur, and was today reminded of this when I overheard someone pronounce it lah-sen-jur.

And so, when I looked in my dictionary, imagine my surprise to discover its cousin "losenger."

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Lozenge
Lozenge Loz"enge (l[o^]z"[e^]nj), n. [F. lozange, losange;
perh. the same as OF. losengef flattery, praise, the heraldic
sense being the oldest (cf. E. hatchment, blazon). Cf.
Losenger, Laudable.]
1. (Her.)
(a) A diamond-shaped figure usually with the upper and
lower angles slightly acute, borne upon a shield or
escutcheon. Cf. Fusil.
(b) A form of the escutcheon used by women instead of the
shield which is used by men.
[1913 Webster]

2. A figure with four equal sides, having two acute and two
obtuse angles; a rhomb.
[1913 Webster]

3. Anything in the form of lozenge.
[1913 Webster]

4. Specifically: A small cake of sugar and starch, flavored,
and often medicated. -- originally in the form of a
lozenge.
[1913 Webster]

Lozenge coach, coach of a dowager, having her coat of
arms painted on a lozenge. [Obs.] --Walpole.

Lozenge-molding (Arch.), a kind of molding, used in Norman
architecture, characterized by lozenge-shaped ornaments.
[1913 Webster] Lozenged

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Tablet Ta"blet, n. [F. tablette, dim. of table. See Table.]
1. A small table or flat surface.
[1913 Webster]

2. A flat piece of any material on which to write, paint,
draw, or engrave; also, such a piece containing an
inscription or a picture.
[1913 Webster]

3. Hence, a small picture; a miniature. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]

4. pl. A kind of pocket memorandum book.
[1913 Webster]

5. A flattish cake or piece; as, tablets of arsenic were
formerly worn as a preservative against the plague.
[1913 Webster]

6. (Pharm.) A solid kind of electuary or confection, commonly
made of dry ingredients with sugar, and usually formed
into little flat squares; -- called also lozenge, and
troche, especially when of a round or rounded form.
[1913 Webster]

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

lozenge
n 1: a small aromatic or medicated candy
2: a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet [syn: pill,
tablet, tab]

-- From WordNet (r) 2.0

107 Moby Thesaurus words for "lozenge":
achievement, alerion, animal charge, annulet, argent,
armorial bearings, armory, arms, azure, bandeau, bar, bar sinister,
baton, bearings, bend, bend sinister, billet, blazon, blazonry,
bolus, bordure, broad arrow, cadency mark, canton, capsule,
chaplet, charge, chevron, chief, coat of arms, cockatrice, coronet,
crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, device, difference,
differencing, eagle, ermine, ermines, erminites, erminois,
escutcheon, falcon, fess, fess point, field, file, flanch,
fleur-de-lis, fret, fur, fusil, garland, griffin, gules, gyron,
hatchment, helmet, heraldic device, honor point, impalement,
impaling, inescutcheon, label, lion, mantling, marshaling, martlet,
mascle, metal, motto, mullet, nombril point, octofoil, or,
ordinary, orle, pale, paly, pean, pheon, pill, purpure, quarter,
quartering, rose, sable, saltire, scutcheon, shield, spread eagle,
subordinary, tablet, tenne, tincture, torse, tressure, troche,
unicorn, vair, vert, wreath, yale



-- From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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Losenger
Losenger Los"en*ger, n. [OF. losengier, losengeor, fr.
losengier to deceive, flatter, losenge, flattery, Pr.
lauzenga, fr. L. laus praise. Cf. Lozenge.]
A flatterer; a deceiver; a cozener. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]

To a fair pair of gallows, there to end their lives
with shame, as a number of such other losengers had
done. --Holinshed.
[1913 Webster]

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

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