Today's Word "Escutcheon"
Published in Vocabulary
escutcheon \es-KEH-chehn\ (noun) - 1 : A shield or tablet bearing a coat of arms; 2 : an ornamental protective plate surrounding a frequently used object, such as a keyhole or drawer pull.
"The early part of Terry's life was a major blemish on the family escutcheon."
Today's word came into Middle English as "escochon" from Anglo-Norman "escuchon." The French word bears an initial e-, added by Romance languages to Latin words beginning with [s] + another consonant, a combination that those languages don't like. The Latin origin was scutum "shield" but French and Spanish prefixed an [e] before it in order to pronounce the [s] and [c] in different syllables. Notice they did the same for French etat "state" (Spanish "estado"), ecole "school" (Spanish "escuela"). French was so offended by the [s] + consonant cluster that it even deleted the [s] for good measure.
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