Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

My dear friend Kezzie commented on last Thursday's post  "I love the word  lozenge.  I think you should do a post just about Lozenges" . It is my suspicion that Kezzie - who has two Z's in her first name and another Z in her surname is just very fond of words with Z  in them. Maybe her favourite animal is a zebra, she plays zither music in her lessons, and enjoys sprinkling za'atar on her salads, and eating zabaglione. I suspect her least favourite Dr Who characters are the zygons. ...She certainly displays zest for life. So here Kezzie is a lozenge  post.

The word lozenge comes from the old French losenge which originates with the Latin lausiae meaning stone slabs.

The common definition is a diamond or rhombus shape  - a foursided figure with its corners at top, bottom and sides - and acute angles at the top and bottom, obtuse angles at the sides.

Lozenge is also the name of a particular diamond cut - where the stone is shaped as above, but has stepped sides. A popular style for rings

I guess that most people hearing the word lozenge will think of cough sweets. And originally these sweets were indeed made in this shape, a stepped quadrilateral. Now they are round, oval, square...

Archaeologists have discovered hard 'candies' made with honey and flavoured with spices used in 1000BC by Ancient Egyptians to soothe their sore throats. 

I wonder which is your favourite brand of throat sweet today ? 

Lozenge is also a term in heraldry. There is the simple diamond [lozenge]

Then there is the mascle - just the outline, with an empty centre

The rustre is a filled lozenge with a circular hole in the centre 

And finally, when the whole field of the piece is covered with them, it's called lozengy. 

Often a lozenge is used in heraldry to depict a woman [sometimes a widow or unmarried woman, but not always] So Kirsten's stitching of lozenges on my initial A was very appropriate.

In Ukraine, embroidery is an important part of the culture, most women learn the skill - and this stitching is predominantly done by women. The designs all have special symbolism, and the lozenge represents a sown field and female fertility. Here are some colourful examples of the work.

At the beginning of my research, I checked out a particular Norfolk guy, in case he had a connection. Herbert de Losinga was the son Robert, Abbot of Winchester, and he came to Norfolk to be bishop of Thetford in 1090. In 1096 he founded Norwich Cathedral. [He also founded Norwich School, and churches in Yarmouth and Kings Lynn] He died in 1119, and was buried in front of the altar [must check this out sometime]

He has absolutely no connection with lozenges that I can find. I do know the patron saint of Diamond Cutters is St Elegius. Maybe the patron saint of lozenges is St. Repsil...

Thank you Kezzie for inspiring this post, I feel I have really learned a lot about the meanings of the word lozenge.